Syria War Planes Cooperating with Iraqi Army
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: A blatant affront to U.S. efforts in Iraq, the country's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki is flat out rejecting Washington's call to form a unity government. The Iraqi leader said in a televised address that such a move would go against the constitution and the results of recent elections. In the meantime, U.S. military advisers are beginning their work, helping Iraqi forces. The Pentagon says some 90 advisers have arrived and are on the ground with more set to arrive in the next few days. The U.S. is also conducting air surveillance in Iraq, with 35 flights daily to gain better insight into the situation there.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It appears Syria is now getting involved. Syrian war planes launching a series of air strikes in cooperation with the Iraqi army. The head of Iraq's Anbar Provincial Council says 57 civilians were killed and 120 others union. I want to bring in our military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, a former military liaison officer with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Colonel, this is fascinating here. You have the situation where the enemy of enemy is a dictator. Syrian forces bombing people that the U.S. is against in western Iraq. What does that do?</s>LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This really complicates the situation. Because Iraqi airspace is not that big. Now you've got Syrian armed fighters and bombers dropping bombs in that same area. Pretty soon, you're going to have an airspace issue, you are going to have armed Syrian aircraft and U.S. aircraft very close to each other. Syria air force, U.S. Air Force, we have no cooperation protocol whatsoever.</s>PEREIRA: The U.S. advisors sent there have been very well briefed in the situation, all the players. This probably was on their radar to some extent but it's really on their radar now.</s>FRANCONA: This is a new development and we're seeing other things happen out there in the west. We're seeing a -- the merging of the al Nursa Front with ISIS. When they were in Syria fighting, they were fighting each other, because they are rival groups. ISIS split from al Qaeda. They were fighting each other, in addition to fighting the Syrian government. They did that for a while too, so everybody is fighting each other. Now they have joined forces together. That makes them a very formidable force, even worse than ISIS by itself. Now we've got these radical jihadis moving down to the Syrian border as well. This is going to be much more complicated and involved before anything is resolved.</s>BERMAN: What we're seeing happening with Maliki is nothing, despite the U.S. government is saying reach across the aisle to your Sunnis and Shiites. Not going to do it.</s>FRANCONA: This is troubling. Instead of the political reconciliation we're hopping to see, we're seeing Maliki gets his back up. This plays right into the hands of the Sunnis in Anbar and the Kurds up north who say, why are they dealing with these people? I think this has complicated things and today the situation just got a little more muddy.</s>PEREIRA: It certainly makes for another human rights issue. We're talking about the people on the ground who are caught in the middle of all of this.</s>FRANCONA: And the Syrian air force is not going to be concerned with the collateral damage as the U.S. Air Force.</s>BERMAN: Not as concerned, at all.</s>BERMAN: Great to have you with us. Really appreciate it.</s>PEREIRA: As we mentioned, more than a million Iraqis have been forced from their homes by escalating violence. The United Nations is saying the number is expected to rise with the threat of ISIS terror groups and the other groups operating there. To find out how you can help Iraqi refugees, go to CNN.com/impact. Another topic, more than 11 million undocumented people live in the United States, many of them coming as children, just like Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas. We're taking a look at his journey in what he calls a broken immigration system. He joins us live ahead.