that s 67 a day that s damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 isis targets. that s according to the united states central command. the air mission led primarily by the united states has been supported on the ground by about 3,500 u.s. troops deployed by the pentagon to advise and assist kurdish forces and the iraqi army in the fight. those air raids have succeceede in eliminating some of isis leadership. after more than a year of assaults on isis, the group confounded all expectations with the wave of terror it unleashed last week in paris and then just the day before in beirut and it left the united states and its global allies reeling with the question that cnn s jim acosta put plainly to president obama at the g-20 summit on monday. the question is, if you ll forgive the language, why can t we take out these bastards? as president obama pointed
is this honestly, what to you see when you see that man and you see what he has to say? look, jihadist ideology is a lifestyle. it s not just a tactic. it s not just an act. it s a lifestyle. something like him, who became radicalized over time, after having run-ins with the law, just shows you how powerful this kind of ideology is. once it seeps into someone s soul, it s difficult to uproot. this has been in propaganda since the days of taliban, al qaeda, so on. what isis did is take that to a new level. to say we re not just a group, we re an actual state. what you re doing with attack in paris, with attack in kuwait, in lebanon, so on, that s all in defense of this caliphate that has been bombarded by a 60-plus nations for the past year and a half. and so for somebody like him, you know, we look at him as a
out in his defense of the u.s. strategy against isis, the answer to that question is complicated. this is not, as i said, a traditional military opponent. we can retake territory. and as long as we leave our troops there, we can hold it. but that does not solve the underlying problem of elimina eliminating dynamics that are producing these kind of violent extremist groups. unlike more traditional terror groups, isis does not rely on the support of state sponsors or foreign funding to thrive but the group has been able to act as a state by taking over and holding a vast swath land on the border of syria and iraq funding itself with the assets it seizes as it acquires territory, including tens of thousands of barrels of oil. it also uses that territory to
from the military, all really strong points of iraqi government. we had the sunni tribal leadership, we had it won, and we had it j we left and then it allowed the al maliki group to purge it. this, think it s overstated the connection between the shia connection, between the iranian there is a i think it s alignment, but it needs to be but it will disappear as soon as the entrants go away. quickly though, it s not american forces. american forces as advisers, absolutely. you don t need maneuver divisions. all right, okay. from your perspective, as you look at this, this is coming up against all we hold sacred, right? we think about that attack that happened on friday night. this is part of the french soul. this is who they are. this is about joie de vivre.
west african nation of mali, officials are reportedly hunting for three suspects in friday s terror attack on a popular luxury hotel there. a group affiliated with al qaeda has reportedly claimed responsibility. officials now say 21 people were killed, including an american identified as anita detar of maryland. her family says she spent her career promoting international development. president obama who is in malaysia this morning for a regional summit, condemned the mali attack. we will stand with the people of mali as they work to rid their country of terrorists and strengthen their democracy. with allies and partners, the united states will be relentless against those who target our citizens. we ll continue to root out terrorist networks. we will not allow these killers to have a safe haven want to go now live to nbc news correspondent keir simmons who is in mali. keir is there at the in the area where the attack happened