Is Baghdad at Risk of an ISIS Takeover?
CAMEROTA: ISIS making startling advances in Iraq and Syria despite coalition airstrikes. General Martin Dempsey, who is leading U.S. efforts to fight the terror group, says fighters came within 15 miles of Baghdad's airport. But the U.S. insists the Iraqi capital is not in danger of falling to ISIS, even though the group stands on the verge of controlling an entire province on Baghdad's doorstep. This as Turkey now says it will let the U.S. use its military bases to fight ISIS. So, let's get to our team on the frontline. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, CNN international correspondent Ben Wedeman in Baghdad, and senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh on the Turkey- Syria border. It's great to see all of you this morning. Ben, I want to start with you. We are hearing conflicting reports as to whether or not ISIS could take Baghdad. They are less than 15 miles away. You are there on the ground. What's the assessment?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ISIS couldn't take Baghdad under the current circumstances. It's a huge city. Most of the population is Shia, which is very hostile to ISIS, in addition to the Iraqi army, which is concentrated in and around Baghdad. There are tens of thousands of Shia volunteers who have been armed and trained with militias as well. So, it's a huge task and ISIS, despite its traumatic gains elsewhere has never been able to take a large population center where the local population does not welcome it if some form or another.</s>CAMEROTA: Barbara, is that the same assessment at the Pentagon?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what they certainly hope. They hope ISIS doesn't really have designs on taking Baghdad. But really, it is the airport right now, Baghdad International Airport. I think it's the U.S. military's focus. They can not lose that airport. What if ISIS were to make some sort of a lightening strike on the west side of the city to try to get control of the airport or shut it down. For the 1,000 or more U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Iraq, that airport is the only way out if this all goes sideways. That is really right now what the U.S. is -- seems to be very determined to protect.</s>CAMEROTA: You are right. That's what General Martin Dempsey talked about yesterday, about the ISIS encroachment on the airport. Let's listen.</s>GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: You're not going to wait until they were climbing over the wall. They were within, you know, 20 or 25 kilometers.</s>INTERVIEWER: Of Baghdad airport.</s>DEMPSEY: Sure. And had they overrun the Iraqi unit, it was a straight shot to the airport. So, we're not going to allow that to happen. We need that airport.</s>CAMEROTA: Barbara, when he said, "We're not going to allow that to happen," what's the plan?</s>STARR: Well, I think Ben will tell you, there -- and Nick as well -- there are significant Iraqi defenses on the west front of the approaches to Baghdad. There are U.S. apache helicopters, which have already been used to push ISIS back. There are also regular drone flights overhead trying to keep an eye on ISIS. But right now, it is becoming tougher by the day because ISIS fighters are changing their strategy, they're blending into local population. They're moving in very small groups. When are you a fighter bomber aircraft at 30,000 feet looking for a target to strike, they are getting tougher and tougher to see day-by-day. So, this is going to be exactly what the Pentagon promised. Airstrikes alone won't work. It's going to be a very long call.</s>CAMEROTA: Nick, speaking of ISIS changing its strategy. You talk about how impossible to predict what ISIS will do next, because tactically, they keep people guessing.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are more advanced than perhaps just what you can see by simply reading what they have done in the past 24 hours, certainly. We've seen them on face with moderate rebels in Syria and potential for big showdown there. They pull back, melted away. Months later, they were focusing in Iraq, on taking territory. We are seeing a definite decisive move by them to take Kobani behind them him and there's a key reason for that. Once they have this town, they have 100 kilometers of the Turkish-Syrian border. That's ordinarily useful for them in terms of leverage with the Turkish government in terms of the ability to use this porous area, to get supplies in and out. They may be moving down Anbar. There are suggestions from some observers actually they are moving also towards the south of the capital, to again to confuse the Iraqi army, divide, fracture, corrupt, incompetent in many ways already and certainly not be able to be light-footed as ISIS can be given the discipline they effectively have better numbers on the battlefield, too. In some ways, yes, an extraordinary complex task, trying to work out precisely what a group like ISIS wants to do next -- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: So, Nick, how deep is Turkey's commitment today to helping?</s>WALSH: Well, I mean, Turkey has been involved in the Syrian war for three years. People talk about, are they going to assist the Syrian moderate opposition? Well, they have been doing that for three years. They've been in the Istanbul hotel circuit, assisting them to have meetings, to build a political opposition, they've allowed over a million refugees on to their territory. This isn't a new fight for them. What they want to do, it seems from statements, is not necessarily be led by a Washington plan. Washington, let's be honest has been all over the place for the past three years about who it wants to assist, what level of assistance it wants to provide, if any at all. The key thing for them I think is to see an outcome or direction which satisfies them, because they have to live with the established circumstances of what comes out of this civil war for decades to come. They've had a long-term problem with the Kurds fighting on this side of the border here. They are enemies, frankly, so they're not going to pile and assist necessarily this fight. They, of course, want to see Syrians they are comfortable with take the superior hand in this battle, definitely. But at the end of the day, they're very clear in anchor that they want to see Assad out of power inside Damascus before they're willing to commit more resources to fighting or assisting what's happening on the side of the border next to me, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Ben, back to Baghdad. What's the feeling on the ground there today about ISIS getting so close?</s>WEDEMAN: People here are fairly confident that there won't be a frontal assault on the capital. Their real worry and it's very well- founded is the series of car bombings that seems to be going on and on, every day there is at least one bombing. The other night Saturday fight, there are two bombings that left more than 40 people dead. So, the worry is really what's going on inside Baghdad, because there are pockets of Sunnis among whom there are sympathizers, if not active members of ISIS as well. But looking beyond that, many people are concerned with the situation in Anbar province, which abuts the capital. We'd just learned that yet another Iraqi army base was overrun today, northwest of the town of Hit. We're getting conflicting reports about what happened afterwards. Some reports saying that the Iraqi burned their equipment and ammunition that they couldn't take with them. Other reports say yet again ISIS was able to get their hands on this very precious American supplied, the hardware and ammunition. So, it's a very mixed picture. But people are nervous as I said about bombs in Baghdad. But they are looking just to the west and increasingly considered about the possible fall of Anbar province, which at this point is 80 percent under the control of ISIS and that remaining under Iraqi army control is very tenuous at best.</s>CAMEROTA: It sure sounds like it, particularly given that bringing news that you just shared with us about the key base being taken over by ISIS. Barbara Starr, Ben Wedeman, Nick Paton Walsh -- thank you so much for being there on the frontlines and giving us all the information this morning. Great to see you. Let's go over to Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. Oscar Pistorius is going to find his fate and soon. How much time is he going to get for culpable homicide? We're going to take live to the courthouse. And a network news team becomes the story, thrown into quarantine after the cameraman tested positive for Ebola. But another one of them has reportedly been spotted driving around New Jersey. What's going on?