praise iran for its backing in the fight against isis. today the iranian support is much larger than the american support, which is limited, he says praise for iran mixed with criticism for the u.s.-led anti-isis coalition. unfortunately, says this spokesman, we ve seen no effort by the international coalition here and that really doesn t reflect well on them. the iraqi government has said it didn t request assistance from the coalition for the tikrit operation. if this operation is successful these fighters and iran will take the credit. ben wedeman is joining us now live from baghdad. ben, excellent report. do these iraqi forces appear to be gaining momentum against isis in this battle for tikrit? because they tried earlier and failed. reporter: yeah that attempt last summer was a complete
isis. today, the iranian support is much larger than the american support, which is limited, he says. praise for iran mixed with criticism for the u.s.-led anti-isis coalition. unfortunately, says this spokesman, we ve seen no effort by the international coalition here, and that really doesn t reflect well on them. iraqi government has said it didn t request assistance from the coalition for the tikrit operation. if this operation is successful, these fighters and iran will take the credit. ben wedeman, cnn, outside tikrit, iraq. well, that was encouraging news about beating back isis, but isis militants have destroyed more ancient ruins in northern iraq. the terror group has bulldozed the site of the ancient assyrian
they very much consistently wanted a shia friendly government that they can influence in baghdad. the iranian news agency reporting, the commander of iran s elite, is in iraq overseeing the tikrit operation. iran providing weapons to fight isis. raising questions, if the u.s. is countering tehran s growing influence inside or out. absolute knowledge of what their intent is is not always there, but yearclearly we have good intelligence services and good overhead imagery and those type fz things. so the activity in tikrit was no surprise. but what does worry the u.s. wolf, is, if those iraqi forces backed by iran the shia forces go into tikrit really heavy in a very violent manner and alienate
the iraqi officials claim the military has gained back some control but residents say sunni militants are still patrolling the streets. the tikrit operation is the biggest attempt by the iraqi government to stop isis from getting closer to baghdad. president obama is vowing to take executive action to raise the minimum wage and puts blame on republicans for not getting it done. the problem is, republicans in congress keep blocking or voting down almost every serious idea to strengthen the middle class. this obstruction keeps the system rigged against the mid class and as long as they insist on doing it, i m going to keep taking actions on my own. the president has been pushing congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. it is currently $7.25. but critics argue it will hurt businesses because they would have to raise product prices and therefore won t be able to afford paying their employees the higher wage. when we first brought you this story last week, a big