Al-Maliki Out as ISIS Advances; New U.S. Airstrikes on ISIS Targets; Interview with Rear Admiral John Kirby; First Look at U.S. Air Flight to Mount Sinjar
BLITZER: We'll continue to follow the events near St. Louis. But there's other important breaking news we're following in Iraq. Where the embattled prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has just announced he is stepping down. Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is joining us now live from Baghdad. Update our viewers, Nick, what happened.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People have been waiting for this announcement from Nouri al-Maliki for days, possibly even weeks. Iran, again, and Saudis saying step down. Washington, Paris, the Shiites, his allies are saying same thing. Finally he took to the stage surrounded by Shiite politicians and said he was stepping down. Said he couldn't in self-pitying tones endure another wound on his body, talked about his achievements as prime minister and said really he was stepping down to make sure there was no innocent blood spilt. Trying to look really like here the unifying figure when really many view him as a sectarian who's fostered division in his time here. But now his one side potentially Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister designate, has a chance to form a cabinet, already getting strong support from Washington. But he does have to show some sense of unity between the Sunnis and the Shia that's been key to allowing ISIS to sweep through territory in the north, worrying signs that they</s>BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much. Nick Paton Walsh in Baghdad. President Obama says the United States will continue airstrikes to protect U.S. facilities and personnel in Iraq and we're just getting word of new strikes. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, what have you learned?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a new series of strikes nearer Irbil in northern Iraq. Pretty interesting. One of them was to destroy an MRAP vehicle, those are the vehicles the U.S. sold to Iraq that are the ones that U.S. troops had been using to avoid Iraqi IEDs during the war. So kind of it all comes full circle. But I want to show you a really amazing photo. This is a first look at the U.S. Special Forces team that went to Mount Sinjar to talk to the people there and find out what was going on. The very first look at American personnel on Mount Sinjar. President Obama having to approve this mission because it was so risky and uncertain. But when the team came back, they came back with information no one expected.</s>STARR (voice-over): U.S. fighter jets are still patrolling the skies over Iraq looking for signs of ISIS on the move. But on Mount Sinjar, a stunning turn of events. Just a few days ago, concerns about genocide and an urgent need for action.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're working with international partners to develop options to bring them to safety.</s>STARR: But within hours of a U.S. Special Forces team returning from the mountain, their assess the was accepted by the White House. The U.S. says now it does not need to mount a massive rescue effort for what was said to be tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped there.</s>OBAMA: We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety. And we helped save many innocent lives.</s>STARR: The Pentagon says airstrikes will continue if the U.S. sees ISIS begin to attack. U.S. officials say they were prepared for the worst-case scenario, a massive rescue effort based on seeing news reports including CNN footage of desperation on the mountain as well as their own drone footage. But now that U.S. troops have seen for themselves the conclusion is only a few thousand people are left and the airstrikes have kept ISIS at bay. The initial intelligence about the mountain was wrong. But this time, they say, that's good news.</s>REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: In a situation like this, if you're going to have an estimate, where it comes down to saving people's lives or helping save their lives I'd rather be high and frankly I'd rather be wrong in the end.</s>STARR: The few thousand Yazidis left received another humanitarian air drop of food and water but the Pentagon also says this may be the last one. The military team says it found several pallets still unopened and apparently unneeded.</s>STARR: But the reality in Iraq right now is ISIS is far from down and out. They are still on the march, of course. And many Iraqis, tens of thousands of Iraqis still suffering, still trying to make their way to safety -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I would say hundreds of thousands, not just tens of thousands. Barbara, thanks very much. Joining us now rear, Admiral John Kirby, he's the spokesman for the Department of Defense. Admiral, thanks very much for coming in.</s>KIRBY: Thanks, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: We heard from Marie Harf, the deputy spokeswoman at the State Department, today. There is -- in her own words there is still a potential here for genocide. Is that true?</s>KIRBY: We believe so. Absolutely. I mean, look, just because things are better on Mount Sinjar and we're glad for that doesn't mean that we are forgetting that there's still humanitarian issues inside Iraq. And there's still great suffering. And ISIL remains brutal and barbaric and absolutely we're still concerned about genocidal type deaths.</s>BLITZER: So genocide against this small religious community, the Yazidis, Christians, Shiites? Who should fear genocide?</s>KIRBY: I think everybody should fear ISIL inside Iraq. And I think that's why everybody's taking this threat so seriously.</s>BLITZER: So -- because the president in his remarks today, he said the U.S. is going to try to help as many people as possible.</s>KIRBY: Right.</s>BLITZER: Does that open the door now that Mount Sinjar apparently is resolved? Fortunately it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be and people are escaping, they're leaving down this corridor through the mountain and that's all good and they've got food and water. But what about all these other places? Because the president himself said it was a dire situation.</s>KIRBY: Absolutely. And I think we would agree with that. Of course. We're going to continue to monitor and assess the situation on the ground with respect to humanitarian issues. And if there's a -- if there's military assistance that can be provided we're certainly going to be prepared and postured to do that. I would also add that we're working with international partners because this can't just be an American response or even just an American military response. You know, we're looking for international partners here. And there have been some. But this is really something that the entire national community should be concerned about.</s>BLITZER: Because there are limits as to what photo reconnaissance, satellite imagery can do. You had to send people, U.S. military personnel, Special Operations forces on top of the mountain to get a clear assessment of what's going on. I assume you're going to have to do that in a lot of places throughout Iraq right now if there's such great fear of genocide.</s>KIRBY: Well, it would depend. I mean, you can have a better picture in some places than others. But overhead ISR has its limits. It's a terrific asset but it's not going to tell you everything.</s>BLITZER: You've got to really check on the ground to see what's going on. So there's a new prime minister now. Nouri al-Maliki is -- he said just a little while ago, he's gone. So does this open the door for new U.S. military-to-military cooperation with the Iraqis?</s>KIRBY: We've had terrific military-to-military cooperation with the Iraqis since we left in 2011. You know, we have a small team there at the embassy that maintained a good relationship with them. And we look for that to continue. Seeing the reports about Prime Minister Maliki's comments and certainly if true we welcome that. It's now time to form a cabinet, form a unity government and try to be more responsive to the Iraqi people.</s>BLITZER: Why did they collapse? The Iraqi military when these ISIS forces were coming in towards Mosul, they have a -- this is a big army, the Iraqi army. They have several hundred thousand troops that the U.S. trained, the U.S. armed, the U.S. financed. In the face of a few thousand ISIS guys coming in, they leave their bases, they run away. They leave a lot of sophisticated U.S. military hardware there for the ISIS troops now to use to kill a lot of people. What happened to them?</s>KIRBY: When we left in 2011, we believe and we said and we reported to Congress that we were leaving an Iraqi Security Force that was credible and capable for the threat that they were facing at the time.</s>KIRBY: Now the threat --</s>BLITZER: That turned out not to be true.</s>KIRBY: The threat has changed, though, since 2011. But also what happened was that the Iraqi government squandered the opportunity that American troops gave them. We left them with a competent Iraqi Security Force but they didn't manage it, equip it, train it, man it as well as it should have, administer it, and lead it as well as it should have. So what happened up in the north we think was a lack of will and a lack of leadership.</s>BLITZER: Do you have a number how many active duty U.S. military personnel are in Iraq right now?</s>KIRBY: Right now in total just over 900. A hundred of those were already there at the embassy in this office of security cooperation. And then we've added just a little bit more than 800 --</s>BLITZER: Is that number going to go up, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000? Because, you know, the word mission -- words mission creep, they keep coming up.</s>KIRBY: There's not going to be mission creep here. The president has been very clear what our goals and objectives are. Mission creep is when the goals and objectives change. They've not changed and we've been working at them efficiently.</s>BLITZER: Because the two goals remain the same. One?</s>KIRBY: One is to continue to continue to look at the humanitarian situation, work with international partners to try to alleviate that. The other is to protect U.S. personnel and facilities. And we're doing that through airstrikes.</s>BLITZER: John Kirby is the spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense. Real Admiral, thanks for coming in.</s>KIRBY: Thanks for having me.</s>BLITZER: Up next, compelling new video on a story you will see first here in THE SITUATION ROOM. CNN's Gary Tuchman rides along with a U.S. military crew taking the long way to bring some humanitarian aid to Iraqis on Mount Sinjar. You're going to see it for the first time, that's coming up. And right at the top of the hour, we're going to go live to the St. Louis suburb where the Missouri Highway Patrol is now getting ready to take the lead security role hoping to head off another night of trouble.