COSTELLO: Forces fighting to retake two major ISIS strongholds this morning -- Palmyra in Syria, Mosul in Iraq. Syrian TV reporting that government forces have entered the historic city of Palmyra and are poised to retake it from ISIS militants. This one day after forces captured a hilltop on the outskirts of that city. ISIS has been in control of Palmyra since May and has demolished many of its historic treasures. The Iraqi army just now launching new operations near the ISIS stronghold of Mosul for that city is in Iraq. Forces have taken control of several villages south of Mosul. That city, Mosul, has been under the terrorist group's control since June 2014. And in an exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, he told me Mosul will be crucial in the fight against ISIS.</s>COSTELLO: When you say accelerate our efforts, are you talking specifically about retaking Mosul?</s>ASHTON CARTER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The two critical is cities, if you're thinking in sort of World War II maps of the battlefield sense, and think of two arrows, one headed towards Mosul in Iraq and one headed towards Raqqa in Syria. Those are the two key cities. Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq, next to Baghdad. It is the city that ISIL has taken control of and we need to collapse its control there and restore it to the</s>COSTELLO: But some Americans might say why don't you just bomb Mosul out of existence?</s>CARTER: Well, we are bombing very considerably in Mosul, but we're doing it -- we're bombing ISIL targets. We're not bombing the city out of existence. We do tremendous amount of air strikes on leadership, command and control targets, their use of energy infrastructure, their ability to move forces. You don't see ISIL forces riding down big convoys waving flags, because we destroy them when they do.
Forces Fighting to Retake Palmyra and Mosul from ISIS.