[Blitzer:] Tonight, ISIS continues to plot new attacks against the West, even as the terrorists are losing territory in their home bases in both Syria and Iraq. There are now grave concerns that defeats on the battlefield there are driving the leaders of ISIS to flex their muscles in new acts of terror overseas. And it's a dangerous dynamic, as the United States and its allies plan their next military moves. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. She's got new information. What are you learning about the situation, first of all, Barbara Starr, on the ground?
[Barbara Starr, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Wolf, tonight, the U.S. military ISIS targeting very crucial, very specific areas around Raqqa and Mosul. But as the old saying goes, it's getting complicated.
[Starr:] On the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, ISIS is losing key ground, suffering crucial setbacks.
[Ashton Carter, U.s. Defense Secretary:] In recent weeks, coalition forces have severed the main artery between ISIS power centers in Raqqa, Syria, and ISIL in Northern Iraq, and begun the early stages to collapse ISIL's control over Mosul.
[Starr:] The U.S. exploiting what advantages it can, like the daring killing of ISIS finance chief Mustafa al-Qaduli. CNN has learned that in broad daylight U.S. special operations forces on helicopters flew at a very low altitude in front of Qaduli's car, firing warning shots to stop. When an occupant leaned out to fire with an AK-47 back at the helicopters, the U.S. team quickly obliterated the car.
[Gen. Joseph Dunford, Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman:] The pressure we put on ISIL in Syria has degraded their capabilities, limited their freedom of movement, and reduced their resources.
[Starr:] But there are still huge problems to resolve.
[Dunford:] In Iraq, we have a partner, but the relationship is complicated by the political landscape, sectarianism and Iranian influence.
[Starr:] Iraqi forces are fighting to retake villages west of the key city of Makhmour. But once again, U.S. officials say there are isolated instances of Iraqi troops running when they come under fire. The area is a critical approach to Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. The Pentagon is sending President Obama recommendations for possibly hundreds of additional U.S. troops to help train and advise Iraqi forces for that fight.
[Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling , Cnn Military Analyst:] The number of Iraqi units it will take to get into Mosul, to secure it, to surround it and then to dig out ISIS, you're talking about between 12 and 16 Iraqi army brigades.
[Starr:] It could mean more than 25,000 Iraqi forces are needed, trained and willing to fight. In Syria, after bloody fighting and with Russian help, forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad retook the area around the ancient city of Palmyra. Those regime forces are now moving north. The U.S. watching to see if they fight all the way to Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold the U.S. wants local forces to capture. Now, the fight ahead in Syria is getting very complex. A defense official tells me tonight that the Russians have stopped their withdrawal from Syria, that there are still dozens of Russian aircraft there, tanks, artillery and Russian fighters on the ground Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks for that report. Joining us now, President Obama's special envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, Brett McGurk joining us from the State Department. Brett, thanks very much for joining us.
[Brett Mcgurk, Special Presidential Envoy For The Global Coalition To Counter Isil:] Thanks, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] I want to get to the war against ISIS. But, as you know, there are these reports out right now there that the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may have been arrested, may have been picked up. What, if anything, can you tell us about that?
[Mcgurk:] Wolf, we have nothing on those particular reports. But I will say that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's days are numbered. We just targeted and killed, as Barbara just mentioned, one of his key deputies, a terrorist named Haji Imam. And we're going to continue to unravel a network that leads to Baghdadi. So, we're after this. We're after it every single day, but I have nothing on those specific reports.
[Blitzer:] Yes, these unconfirmed reports suggest that Syrian troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad's regime backed by the Russians may have grabbed him or picked him up. There's been no official confirmation either from the Syrian regime or from the Russians right now. But once again, you have heard those reports. Do they have any credibility at all?
[Mcgurk:] I have seen absolutely nothing to support that. I would say, we're getting closer to him every day and we're going to stay at it. Our forces are focused on this every single moment of the day.
[Blitzer:] Is he in Iraq or is he in Syria?
[Mcgurk:] He's probably in Syria, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] In Raqqa, the capital of the so-called ISIS caliphate?
[Mcgurk:] Most likely. Look, he used to be in a town called Shadadi. Shadadi is a town in Northeastern Syria. He used to be based there. And we, of course, worked with the coalition of Syrian Kurds and Arabs, a force 6,000-strong. It was about 40 percent non-Kurdish force, a very inclusive force. And they took Shadadi from ISIL. ISIL was prepared to defend that town. They dug tunnels. They dug trenches. They tried to reinforce it. We thought it would take about three weeks. Actually, we thought it would take about six weeks. Excuse me. It took about six days. And their leadership is really dispersing. And it's not a surprise that we were able to target and kill the overall military emir of ISIS, Omar Shishani, just south of Shadadi. So, places for him to go are increasingly limited. So, I would suspect one of their strongholds, most likely Raqqa.
[Blitzer:] All right, let's talk a little bit about the setbacks that ISIS is suffering on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. Some are suggesting they may now further step up their attacks, their terror attacks, in Europe and maybe even here in the United States. Is that the U.S. assessment right now that as they lose ground there, they may launch new terror strikes in Europe, let's say?
[Mcgurk:] Well, Wolf, if you track what Baghdadi has said for years, you go back to his writing from many years ago, he's always wanted to attack the West. That's always been an aspiration for him. And they have had external plotting networks in place for many years. The attacks we have seen recently in Europe, it's a network; it's a network led by one of Baghdadi's deputies, Muhammad Adnani. And they train operatives in Syria to plot and then they send them out of Syria into Europe. We think the Paris attackers probably came through that network last summer. So this is something that they have been trying to do for a long time. We believe that, to get after it, we have to work with our European partners. We were of course just in Brussels last week with Secretary Kerry, not only to pay our condolences to the victims of that attack, but also to talk to the Belgian authorities about tightening up some of their networks. I met here with the head of Interpol today at the State Department about drying up the foreign fighter networks. But, most importantly, Wolf, we have to shut down this territory that they still control in Syria. There's just no substitute for doing that. And that is why we're so focused on the heart of this phony caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
[Blitzer:] There's a lot of concern, as you know, and you have seen the reports, that ISIS may be trying to obtain what is called a dirty bomb, some sort of radiological dirty bomb that would wind up killing a lot of people, poisoning a lot of people. How concerned are you about that?
[Mcgurk:] It's a concern of ours. It's also something that we're focused on every single day, particularly around Mosul, where we know that they have had a chemical weapons network, trying to produce chemical weapons. They have, of course, launched chemical munitions and mustard gas at our colleagues the Peshmerga fighters, who are those heroic fighters on the front lines there. We're actually doing a pretty good job of unraveling that particular network. But it's something we're focused on every day. That's why President Obama is bringing together almost 50 countries here in the nuclear security summit to talk about not only protecting nuclear materials all around the world, but also that very dangerous intersection between chemical weapons, nuclear materials and terrorist groups, one of, of course, is ISIL. We're focused on this on a global scale and we're focused on it particularly in Iraq and Syria. And I will just say, the more we operate, the more information we get, the more our special operators are out there, the more we learn about the networks and the more we're able to unravel them. And one of the networks, in addition to the external plotting network I mentioned, is this chemical weapons network that ISIL has, particularly inside Iraq, particularly near Mosul. But we're uprooting that network as we speak.
[Blitzer:] Can you blow it up using airpower, destroy that chemical weapons factory?
[Mcgurk:] Yes, it's a great question. We're very careful about that. Our targeters who do this, I defer to my colleagues in the Department of Defense, but they look at everything from the way the wind is blowing and everything else to make sure that we're able to destroy those facilities without undue harm to the civilian population. We're being very precise about it. But we're not we will not allow a terrorist group like ISIL to experiment with these types of lethal munitions when we find out what they are doing and where they are doing them.
[Blitzer:] Because what really worried me was that video that they found, what, hours of ISIS terrorists in Europe monitoring some Belgian nuclear scientist, monitoring the Belgian nuclear reactor. They had to shut it down in Belgium out of concern. How close are they to getting their hands on some sort of dirty bomb?
[Mcgurk:] Yes. I think, look, our colleagues in Belgium have really advanced security protocols around those sites. But we want to have security protocols that advanced all around the world. And that's why we have more than 50 countries here this week in Washington and President Obama will be leading that very important summit meeting. But, look, it's an aspiration of ISIL. They're a global terrorist network. They don't only want to expand their territory in Iraq and Syria. They want to attack us at home. They want to attack our partners. It's something they have talked about for years. And if they can get hands on munition like that, they wouldn't hesitate to use them. That's why it's so dangerous. That's why we have built this coalition of more than 60 countries to go at it on a global basis, not only in Iraq and Syria, but also the foreign fighter networks, the propaganda networks, the financing networks. But this intersection of chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction and terrorism is something, of course, we have been concerned about since 911, and we're working to make sure that groups like al Qaeda and groups like ISIL cannot get their hands on these materials. And that's why so many heads of state are here in Washington this week to focus on that very issue.
[Blitzer:] It's a huge issue, indeed. One final question right before I let you go. Donald Trump says he would fight ISIS by going after their oil, destroying their oil revenue, if you will, asking Saudi Arabia to do the fighting on the ground. He also says he would favor going back to using water- boarding against ISIS terror suspects. What's your reaction when you hear that kind of talk?
[Mcgurk:] We're going after their oil. It takes intelligence. This is really hard, complex work. You don't just go after and bomb oil facilities. You have to find out, how are they getting the oil? How are they producing it? Where are the trucks going? What are the networks? Who are the leaders? And then target them and root them out. And that is exactly what we're doing. And that information came from a raid by our special forces about eight months about against Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist who was one of Baghdadi's deputies running their financing network. We got more information out of that raid than we have in any special forces raid in history, just our heroic operators out there. And because of that, we're able to fuse the intelligence and then destroy the networks. So, ISIL is now paying their fighters about 50 percent of what they were paying them only months ago. And that's going to continue to go down. So, we're completely uprooting their financial infrastructure, and we're going to continue to do it.
[Blitzer:] Brett McGurk, thanks very much for joining us.
[Mcgurk:] Wolf, thanks so much.
[Blitzer:] Brett McGurk is the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS. Just ahead, has Donald Trump defused his explosive new comments about abortion and the prospect of punishing women who get them? We will have much more on that. Also, Hillary Clinton hitting Donald Trump hard on their mutual home turf. We're talking about New York. Is it part of her primary strategy or an early general election attack?