Coalition Forcers Closing in on ISIS Capital Raqqa
SIDNER: Ok. Tens of millions of people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are at risk of dying from starvation. Now the United Nations says they're also facing another deadly threat -- lack of access to clean water. And the U.N. says combination of famine and noxious water sets off a vicious cycle. The United Nations says conflict and climate change are driving this slow moving monster. Now to Syria. U.S.-led fighters in Syria are closing in on the self- proclaimed capital of the ISIS caliphate, Raqqa. But before they can get much closer, they'll need to retake a crucial dam. Our Ben Wedeman reports.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These waters bring life to the dry plains of northern Syria. But should this dam collapse, they could bring death to thousands living downstream along the Euphrates River. The Tabqa Dam built with the help of the Soviet Union half a century ago now the scene of intense fighting between the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF and ISIS. SDF fighters control the northern half of the dam; ISIS the southern half. Recently ISIS warned residents of Raqqa just 40 kilometers or 25 miles downstream to evacuate their homes because the dam was in danger of breaking. When the residents of the city panicked, ISIS denied there was danger, not wanting to empty their de facto capital. "Thank God there's nothing to worry about", says this SDF fighter. Today several engineers visited and checked the dam, the open channels to reduce the pressure of the water. Anti-ISIS fighters are closing in on Raqqa, assisted by a growing contingent of U.S. troops and Special Forces. This video obtained by CNN shows a convoy moving U.S. bulldozers, armored vehicles and other equipment. As the Americans go in, civilians pour out; once more caught between the danger of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and ISIS who want to use them as human shields. "The plane", says this man, "are striking ISIS positions, which are placed among the civilians, among us, so we left." They're coming to territory controlled by the SDF, but hundreds of thousands are still in ISIS territory. "We've been out in the open for 11 days," says this man. "We're going around like the blind. We don't know where to go escaping the hell of war and the danger of high waters." Ben Wedeman, CNN -- Irbil, northern Iraq.</s>SIDNER: Joining me here now in Los Angeles is Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. She is a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing editor with Atlantic Media Defense One. ISIS is really losing ground. So that's a clear signal and, I guess, good news if you will for many of the civilians there. But when they get pushed and pushed and pushed, doesn't that make them more dangerous in some ways?</s>GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I mean you talk to people who have seen a whole lot of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military officials. And they'll say they've never seen close quarters combat this kind, this deadly, this awful, this savage in terms of what they're willing to do, in terms of using civilians as -- not just human shields but putting entire families at risk and holding them hostage for endless days. Absolutely.</s>SIDNER: When it comes to what is happening, you know, there are some really atrocious -- some atrocities that have happened obviously throughout this war. But recently in Mosul, just the scale of what has happened in Mosul, what lessons can be learned from what happened in Mosul and the mistakes made by those who are trying to rid the area of ISIS? And what is going to happen in the future in Raqqa?</s>LEMMON: Listen, you've covered this region, right. I mean I think everybody thought, you know, the Mosul campaign will be difficult, but it won't be impossible.</s>SIDNER: Right.</s>LEMMON: And you talk to U.S. military officials and people say this is a long hard slog that does not look to be getting much easier, in part, because U.S. fighters are not the ones fighting it, right. This is the strategy of its Iraqi forces, with U.S. advise-and-assist, and in part, because of the way that ISIS is booby-trapping so many of these locations. And this is the real issue then is the "and then what" question. What happens after Mosul? What happens after Raqqa? What is the plan? You know, U.S. generals are calling for more diplomacy, more development, more stability, at the same time we're seeing, you know, very strong likelihood of cuts in those. So where is the hand-off? And I think that, the "and then what" question at some point has to be answered.</s>SIDNER: Must be absolutely terrifying. And then there's also the question of, when you say "and then what" -- there will be ISIS fighters who escape, who move on, who go somewhere else. What are the concerns of the surrounding nations who now realize that -- and this has been happening even before they've been pushed to the degree they've been pushed? What happens then? Who is going to police them, if you will?</s>LEMMON: Right. And look, it's much easier to kill a terrorist than to kill an idea. And that is the real challenge that you have in the fight against ISIS, which is when folks, you know, then go blend in to wherever it is afterward, how do you go and find them? Right. It's not easy, even when you have the best law enforcement officials globally, you know, focused on this. And so I don't think that anybody thinks that this is going to be easy or that the campaign to retake Raqqa would be the end of this.</s>SIDNER: When it comes to civilians, and you talked about the future, how do you rebuild a place like Syria which really has been -- when people talk about being destroyed, I mean city after city after city leveled?</s>LEMMON: In real-time.</s>SIDNER: In real-time.</s>LEMMON: We've all been watching.</s>SIDNER: We've been watching this.</s>LEMMON: Absolutely.</s>SIDNER: How do you do that? How do you go in and rebuild when there's still obviously such hatred that has been born out of what has happened, understandably, towards the regime, as much as towards ISIS in some cases?</s>LEMMON: Well, you know, I keep thinking about two things. One is, you know, spend time with Syrians who have been displaced by this war and one thing everybody tells you they want is to go home.</s>SIDNER: Go home.</s>LEMMON: Right. The first thing that everybody says -- I remember interviewing a Syrian mom who said, I have an illiterate son in 2016. She said, "Do you know what that feels like?" She said, "All we want to do is go home and rebuild. And we don't care." On the other hand, you have this situation where what is going to be left, the level of devastation, and the number of military forces globally, that are playing in the Syrian battlefield is something we have not seen. And so how do you go in, with what dollars, who's going to pay when nobody has even wanted to pay to feed children and families who are displaced?</s>SIDNER: People that are literally starving.</s>LEMMON: Absolutely. Let alone to pay for the rebuilding of this nation. And so I think we're going to see heart break and carnage for a while.</s>SIDNER: It's really devastating. The more you watch it, the more you can't see how it's going to get better. But it has to at some point.</s>LEMMON: That's right. And the one thing that gives you faith is Syrian moms and dads who say, we're committed to our country and --</s>SIDNER: We're going back.</s>LEMMON: -- we're going back.</s>SIDNER: Yes. Thank you so much for being with us and explaining that. Thank you for being here. We will be back in just a bit.