Two Hundred Dead In ISIS Attack In Baghdad
CAMEROTA: This morning three countries reeling after ISIS attacks in the space of one week. Terrorists attacked Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iraq, leaving hundreds of people dead. This as ISIS continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria. Joining us now is Colonel Christopher Garver. He is the spokesman of the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq, Operation Inherent Resolve. Colonel, thank you so much for being with us on this 4th of July.</s>COL. CHRISTOPHER GARVER, MILITARY SPOKESMAN, ANTI-ISIS COALITION IN IRAQ: Thank you, Alisyn. We'd like to extend a happy independence day to everybody back in the United States.</s>CAMEROTA: And to you as well there. So this Baghdad attack just sounds God awful, Colonel. At least 200 people killed, including many children. These were -- this was in a middle class neighborhood. These were families that had come together for the weekend to celebrate together. It was the end of the school year. It was families just doing what we all hope that we can do, and they were slaughtered. Does it -- when something like this happens, does it give you pause as to whether your mission is working?</s>GARVER: Well, it certainly gives us resolve as to why we must accomplish our mission. As we saw and we have seen before, ISIL is a group of terrorists who will attack us in any of our capitals, in any of our countries, anywhere across the globe given the opportunity to do that. The Iraqis, unfortunately, saw that, but we also saw that in Bangladesh. In Turkey we've and seen bombings, in Paris, in Brussels. We've also seen people inspired by this terrorist group that conduct attacks in the United States and then all of our capital. So it certainly gives us resolve as to why we must accomplish our mission and defeat them here in Iraq and Syria.</s>CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. These three attacks in the space of one week in different continents. I mean, this was an attack in Asia in Bangladesh. This was in Turkey, that straddles Asia and Europe, and then of course, the Middle East in Baghdad. What do you think of the scope of ISIS? Because it feels as though it's expanding.</s>GARVER: Well, ISIL is a global problem. We've known it's a global problem. They've wanted to have global impact for the last two years. As they get squeezed in Iraq and Syria, as we take terrain away from them and defeat them and they have not won a battle in Iraq in the last seven months. Ever since the fall of Ramadi last year, they have not won a battle, and they have only lost ground. They're trying to remain relevant on the global stage, and they're trying to show that as they attract crazies and sickos from across the globe, they're trying to show that, hey, we're still a viable threat, we're still a viable force. So that's why, again, it's important we defeat them here to help cut down this exportation of terror across the globe.</s>CAMEROTA: And your mission, of course, is to shrink that physical space that they occupy. But how important is that physical space, since it does seem as though regardless of physical space, they're able to perpetrate these global attacks?</s>GARVER: Well, it's important because they declared themselves an independent country, what they call a caliphate, in between Iraq and Syria. Kind of between the space that wasn't being governed very well, and they conquered some more space. They're showing, or trying to show, the crazies around the world, hey, we are a viable state. This is the caliphate as it's been declared. You need to come to us, and we will train you and make you a foreign fighter as we call them here. We have to break that. We are not only trying to beat a force on the battlefield but beat an ideology as well. We're trying to prove that ISIL does not have anything of value to offer the world. That's why we have to defeat them.</s>CAMEROTA: Colonel, some in the military have suggested the air campaign that you're a part of, obviously leading, is not as effective as it could be. Barbara Starr sat down with the air force chief of intelligence, who said on a scale of one to ten, he would only give it a five. Let me play for you what he said about this.</s>LT. GENERAL ROBERT OTTO, U.S. AIR FORCE: I would give us a five, which means we have a lot of work to do. The problem is not having enough fighter jets to drop bombs. The problem is having enough legitimate targets that we can strike that can put ISIL on their heels.</s>CAMEROTA: Colonel, is that a problem, which is not having people on the ground to point out exactly where the fighters are and the targets, to make the air campaign more successful?</s>GARVER: Well, we do both what we call dynamic targeting, which is the targets that develop in the middle of the fights, and we do deliberate targeting, which is as our intelligence finds those viable targets, as he was just talking about just there, we then go in and strike those targets. But we're being very careful about hitting civilians. We're being very careful about making sure when we go attack something that is ISIL, it's what we want to attack. We have a very stringent vetting process to make sure we're hitting exactly what we think we're hitting. In the middle of fights, we'll roll fighters in, I support of the Iraqi Security Forces and in support of our opposition partners in Syria and attack targets that way. But it is -- it's something we're constantly working at and constantly working to get better at. So absolutely, it's something we're continuing to improve.</s>CAMEROTA: Colonel, thank you for your time today. We wish all of you there on the front lines a happy 4th of July. Thanks for being here.</s>GARVER: All right. Thank you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Let's get over to John.</s>BERMAN: All right, thanks, Alisyn. Some of our military heroes and their families honored with a Major League Baseball game just in time for the 4th. This was wonderful. We'll explain what's going on here and why this Marlins/Braves game made history. That's next.