we'll see you next time. >> hi owner, i'm john siegenthaler -- hi everyone i'm john siegenthaler in new york. coming up. a special report but randall pinkston is here with the news. >> word that a second aid worker

ihas been beheaded and an american is next. proaddress protesters say police did little to protect them. plus a risky sport, three high school football players die within one week, what's being done to protect young players? we begin tonight with concerns about the ebola virus. the u.s. is stepping up the battle against the virus on two fronts. in the disease riddled villages of liberia where the death toll just rose significantly and in texas where a man infected with the debtly disease is in serious condition. today in dallas authorities took action, they decontaminated the apartment of the man who has the disease had been staying.

diane eastabrook has the story. >> the family members that had been staying with thomas duncan have been moved out, earlier this evening, tine a private town somewhere in dallas county, in an undisclosed location. earlier today a haz-mat crew came in cleaning the under duncan had been staying. they took away bedding towels and personal items, those items were put into containers sealed and taken to a storage facility. they will be disposed of later. the cdc and the state health department have narrowed the number of people they had been monitoring. yesterday they were looking at about 100 people, now at about 50, specifically closely monitoring about ten people. those include the family members who were duncan inside the apartment as well as health care workers who took care of him. when they took him in the

ambulance to the emergency room. randall. >> other members of duncan's family live a few blocks away. authorities have asked them to stay inside their home but have not been quarnted. heidi zhou-castro spoke with them. >> nothing distinguishes the door but a plastic bag containing soiled die% lying beside it. the family is too afraid to go to the door. i'm surprised when the door opens. >> this morning we are all fine. >> the stepdaughter of thomas duncan lives here with her four children, ages 2 to 11. one reason they opened the door they tell me is because they're hungry. they've been expecting a food delivery from a health care worker. >> ross you hungry? >> this little girl is nodding yes she's very hungry. when is the last:00 yo last time

sweetheart? >> i don't know. >> the kids spent time in duncan's house when he was contagious. it was their younger daughter who took duncan to the hospital on sunday. they waited for an hour holding aing blanket that had covered duncan's back and feet. >> no one asked, what happened to my step dad? i'm with him in the emergency room. >> reporter: the family is among ebola contacts health officials are monitoring but unlike her mother who shared the same house as duncan, this family is not under a quarantine order. so in other words you have not been ordered to stay in this house but you have been told to, is that accurate? >> we have been told to, just for safety. but i don't know, we have to be

arranging something i don't know about it. >> the family says they're confused, they don't know when they'll get food or, if someone will dispose of the trash. >> we have no air conditioner, the trash is stinky, i put it in a bag and cover it with a plastic bag. >> so for now the family watches worries and waits, a health care worker takes their temperature twice a day but offers no instruction. >> let me understand, no one comes to your house to tell you you have to stay behind this door? >> yes, no one tells us, do not go us out, we just doing this. >> they say they're staying here because they are scared they may be a danger to public safety. heidi zhou-castro, al jazeera, dallas. >> now there could be a second case of ebola in the u.s. a patient has been quarantined at howard university hospital in washington, d.c, officials say the person had recently traveled

to nigeria. has ebola like symptoms and in stable condition. an american freelance cameraman will be flown back to the u.s. will be taken to the nebraska center in omaha, the same facility that treated rick socra last month. 3130 people have died from ebola, more than 2,000 are in liberia. as jonathan betz reports, the u.s. is stepping up its fight to prevent a global crisis. >> with no sign of ebola slowing in africa. >> that's we're doing everything we can to assure this situation is addressed.

>> every available hearing heale worker is heading to africa. >> we know how to stop this and we will do so again. >> the number from 200 will swell to 3200. including 2,000 from fort campbell, another thousand from texas, 160 from colorado and dozens from north carolina and other posts. >> they are not all going to arrive in one chunk. >> thousands dying, hospital he completely overwhelmed and a severe shortage of doctors. >> the world is absolutely not doing enough yet. we are still challenged to outrun the disease. >> reporter: even getting there is challenging. liberia's crumbling airport is reportedly struggling to handle all the cargo flights. right now aid groups are doing much of the heavy lifting

building clinics and treating patients. >> we have aid here, we have scrubs and table cloths and sterile items for the surgeries. >> the u.s. has sent supplies and hopes to have more facilities built within the next weeks. officials will be arriving but not in the treatment of patients. >> we are not going to be in the treatment role. >> jonathan betz, al jazeera, new york. >> news that i.s.i.l. has claimed to be head another hostage. a video appears to show the beheading of allen hemming. the fourth western hostage beheaded by i.s.i.l, british prime minister david cameron says the brutal video shows how

brutal these people are. peter kasish was working as an aid worker when he was captured. i.s.i.l. said the beheadings are in retaliation of coalition air strikes against them in iraq and syria. the coalition has been bombing groups for nearly two weeks now. tonight canada has joined the fight. prime minister steven hopper says canada will participate in u.s. air strikes. up to six months. canada also plans to send refueling aircraft and two surveillance planes to help. harper says canada will not deploy ground there is toops in the fight. bernard smith reports from across the border in turkey. >> with tanks taken from the iraqi army, fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the

levant intensify their shelling of kobani on friday. the town on syria's border with turkey is being defended by a few thousand syrian kurdish fighters. shoot the tanks one commander tells the fighters. unlikely to be able to hold the town much longer without outside help. >> we wouldn't want kobani to fall. we will do whatever we can to prevent this from happening. >> reporter: but there's no indication that turkey's military is about to get involved in this battle. it could if it wanted to. there's more domestic legislation, to fight what it defines as terrorism in syria and iraq. for right now turkey is just a refuge for kobani's refugees, they say they need

reenforcements. there's been a handful of u.s. air strikes around kobani in recent days. just enough it seems to keep i.s.i.l. at bay. but judging by the proximity of fighting towards town now, it's going to be very difficult to stop kobani falling to i.s.i.l. with air strikes alone. bernard smith al jazeera on the turkey syria border. >> coming up join us for an al jazeera special report, escape from i.s.i.l. >> reesdz of video from quoam guantanamo bay. the prisoner has been locked up in guantanamo bay for 12 years. he's on a hunger strike but military members strapped him to a chair and force fed him. his lawyers are challenging the

treatment calling it abusive. appealing the ruling so the tapes will likely remain under wraps for now. there was a fight at 9/11 memorial at shanksville memorial. marking the spot where united 93 crashed during the terrorist attacks. no damage to the memorial which will reopen tomorrow morning. and in ferguson missouri, st. louis county police have taken over control of protesters that are calling for the conclusion of, the michael brown investigation. they were charged with resisting

arrest. >> life altering injuries, the highly physical nature of football is approving deadly. paul beban on the potential high risks of football. >> high school football is full of fast plays and big hits. going down hard and getting up slow are just part of the game. but during the past week, players and parents across the country, have been reminded just how dangerous the game can be. since last friday, three high school football players have died. all of them collapsed wearing their yurms on the field. on -- uniform on the field. >> this was a tragedy, this was just a damn tragedy. >> in an average year, 11 high school football players die from football injuries.

directly connected to the game, head or spinal injuries, the majorities are called indirect fatalities, things like heat exhaustion, heart problems and stroke. earlier friday friends and teammates honored demaria harris. his father said his son suffered a brain hemorrhage caused by the hit. long island new york, vigil held for tom kutenella, varsity player collapsed and died after a collision. school officials say they will investigate to see if more can be done to keep players safe. they'll examine safety procedures. still, kutanella's injury was a random injury. >> it was just a freak accident.

>> freak accident or otherwise what is clear is that part of the game we call typical football is tragedy. paul beban, al jazeera. >> andy kanellas founded the gridiron heroes foundation, after his son was paralyzed. i asked eddie about his son's injury. >> what happened with my son, i mean it was one of those injuries that really nobody was prepared for. no one's ever prepared for something like that. you know, we're trying to do things now to help prevent some of those injuries. the big key right now are trying to get the help to those families that have already been injured. they tend to be forgotten after high school is you know, over with. they tend to be forgotten athletes and so that's one of the things we're trying to do within the football community is to be able to help those families long term.

and you know we sometimes get some sad stories where kids are isolated in a room for six months at a time where they don't have the equipment, medicaid or insurance is not paying for some of the equipment they really need so we try to raise those funds to make sure they get the equipment and not fall through the cracks. >> i wants to ask you each time you see one of these injuries taking place what comes through your mind? >> well, it's a little bit hard. we have to relive my son's injury each time. but one of the things that gridiron heroes has been about, for all of our young men and families that we work with, they all still love the game of football. and so we just need to do a better job to support these families. >> given the fact that you know what works, that you know what can make football players safer especially at the high school level, i'm wondering whether you think that there should be a pause to any high school team

playing until the proper training is brought to every team in the country. >> well, that's been one of my pet peeves over the years. i've been calling for a national tackling certification for all coaches basically. i mean it's kind of like now it's being done on a trickle effect and we need to get everybody on board. not only the coaches but the administrators as well, you also have to get the re referees on board right now we're at a point in time where football is under a microscope and the science behind all the information we have with the repeated hits to the head, cte, the suicides all these things are coming to the forefront whereas before no one ever really wanted to talk about it, especially those governing credit bodies in football. it's catching up so we have to talk about it. we get to a point where we're

not afraid to talk about what we can do to help these kids. >> do you think there should be an age limit on the young personal who's allowed to play tackle football, you know right now we have tackle tall way down what, the poc pop warner league. do you think there should be a minimum age, four-year-olds are out there, having those serious injuries -- >> they're starting at four -- well, that's -- we don't know, there's no evidence that says, i mean in a reality, a little kid that suffers a concussion, is probably doing more harm. but yeah, that's a little bit where we differ from u.s.a. football and the heads up program. and that's where it comes into question whether it's about the money or is it about the safety of our kids. they change the tackling portion of the program, in order to appease the little kids that couldn't keep their head up. we say if they can't keep their

head up then don't let them play tackle football. let them play flag football. >> we understand that hindsight is always 20-20. but if you had it over to do again, would you let your son play football? >> it would be up to him. i'd let him play if he wanted to. in athletics in general, we come to appreciate what coaches instill in these kids, the discipline they need to overcome an injury to save their lives so. we've come to appreciate what coaches instill in these kids. >> eddie canelis, the director of gridiron football. thank you so much for joining us on al jazeera america. >> you're welcome. >> scuffle on the streets of hong kong, people for and against the umbrella movement

fighting over the durations. durations-d demonstrations. we'll get a live report. plus this. >> the art of story telling. we hear from a man who's made his life's calling, it's our friday arts segment. hard hitting series... edge of eighteen >> i'm never going to appoligize for the type of person that i am >> facing tough challenges... >> we do feel cheeted, by the american university process >> taking a stand... >> it's gonna be on my terms, on how i want it to be >> boldly pursuing their dreams >> what did i do? >> the lives of american teenagers... on the edge of eighteen only on al jazeera america

>> you're looking at live pictures from hong kong where it's about 11:20 saturday morning. things appear calm now after a night of violent protests, prodemocracy protesters are not stepping down. one of the three main protest groups backed out of plans to meet with government officials they say police did not do enough to protect them during the scuffles. scott heidler does it appear that the protests are dying down or heating back up? >> randall we are right where the violence took place, it's

11:00 saturday morning. in the last hour and a half it has heated up a bit. not like we saw last night, there really hasn't been much fighting if you will, a lot of scuffling, a lot of shouting, a lot of heated arguments. that's the center point of a main intersection in the montauk area. they have been here all night. and what has happened in the last hour and a half, as i said, local residents have come and circled around where those protesters are, and geamed with them. they say you shouldn't be here, it's disrupting my livelihood, my neighborhood. that's been going on for the last 90 minutes. what's amazing is there are very, very few police here. again it hasn't erupted into violence like we saw last night but it has definitely gotten

heated. we saw an elderly woman taken out on a gurney a while ago. an ambulance to my left just pulled out, it's ramping up if you will not like we saw last night but again very, very interesting and i need to underline this, very few police officers here and those that were here were not in riot gear. they were in plain clothes and they dragged some people out. >> we'll keep watch. scott heidler, thank you. one of the oldest forms of art is story telling. in friday arts segment we have met a man who has turned it into his profession. he is known throughout northeast of his ability to recreate the past. >> ichabot crane got afinal look at his travel companion. imagine the school master's horror when he looked to see the

face of the other rider and found he had no head! my name is jonathan cruck and i'm a story teller. i go to schools parks libraries historic sites and perform. >> and make you fall on your boombosity. >> when people first begin oteach with talk through stories. when the story is being told and you see the story teller, a connection is made, a bond most int plat between the teller and the listener. as a the teller i can watch people's faces as they're watching mine and respond. and pause, or get a little bit faster in the tale or raise my voice. you don't have that when you have a simple book on tape. what's unique about my story-telling is the

theatricality. using varied voices and especially the children's interaction. >> hey there's something up over there. >> it is an art to find precisely what it takes to reach out and draw someone into the story. so that they're walk along with you, imagining that landscape, hearing all of the different voices, meeting the characters. >> oh it's van winkle. where have you been these 20 years? >> the crowd still craves story telling because it's the heart of our common experience. >> down into the ditch. by the catacombs. >> that was jonathan cruck. now to john siegenthaler with a preview of our special five days of fear, escape from i.s.i.l. >> thanks randall. up next the culture of fear inside i.s.i.l. why former fighters say they

joined the group but how they walked away. and families torn apart as husbands and sometimes wives leave home to join i.s.i.l. our special report's coming up next.

>> escape from i.s.i.l. refugees by the hundreds of thousands trying to get away from a brutal enemy. fighters recruited to join a cause. can the international effort to stop i.s.i.l. work? as families are torn apart, our special report, five days of fear, escape from i.s.i.l. >> hi everyone i'm john siegenthaler. the islamic state of iraq and the levant is waging a campaign of fear and violence across two countries. iraq and syria. nick schifrin has been reporting from the turkish border. he's seen how i.s.i.l. recruits

fighters, smuggles them across the border into syria and he talk to people who are trying to stop them. we begin with the human cost, thousands of syrian families forced to leave their homes to escape i.s.i.l. here is nick schifrin. >> in this war, the most common victims are syrian women and their families. everyday, thousands of syrian ratification flee to turkey. if you are syrian and three years old, your country has been at war every day of your life. they escape from this city, ayn al arab. battle sparked the largest exodus of the syrian war. three quarters of the refugees are children and women. the asan family bring only they can carry. for four-year-old hero, that means a bottle of water and a backpack shaped like a doll. her seven-year-old sister eva is a strong one.

troubled but no tears. her brother six-year-old partisan has seen too much to hold back. their mother tries to stay strong but it's impossible. i.s.i.l. terrifies her. >> translator: i'm not afraid of the shelling because we're already dead. we are completely destroyed. i'm not afraid of death. i'm afraid of them. >> reporter: as they leave the border, eva grabs her little sister's hand. they've lost three homes in two years. they walk to an uncertain future. 50 miles away, a doctor walks through a park, fearing her future will never live up to her past. reem ask also syrian. two months ago she fled from syria. >> it's the worst day of my life. >> reporter: she lived in nakka. womed were forced to wear head

covering. decapitated bodies create a terrible servile population. reen was the only female dorkd who stayed. >> why did you stay in the hospital? >> i had to do something. there are so many poor people i raqqa, they needed help. >> reporter: when she tried to save a female patient's life, medical necessity. >> she was dying? >> yes. >> they wanted to cover her face? she died? she died. >> reporter: in turkey, she can't practice medicine or work at all. she won't show her face because she's afraid of i.s.i.l. finding her and killing her. >> do you hope to go back to syria some day? >> i hope to go back but i don't think so. >> what you do you think? >> translator: i don't feel anything. what can i count on? even my husband has gone back to fight. i have no place, no house, nothing.

>> reporter: she and her family now live in her brother-in-law's house. it's not much. 20 refugees for two rooms. she criticizes the u.s. for standing on the sidelines for years and then launching what she calls ineffective air strikes. >> translator: it's been four years. our houses are destroyed, so are our aims and our children' future. they are giving us hope but nothing else, just hope, there's nothing being done. >> reporter: this war has created the largest refugee crisis since world war ii. it's created a generation that's growing up way too fast. even the strongest can't bear to watch. >> al jazeera america senior digital writer, alia malik, we're glad to have you in our studio tonight. first of all you went to erbil in iraq. how many people have fled

i.s.i.l. and when did they tell you? >> it's in the several hundreds of thousands at this point. you also have refugees coming also in from syria. they told me stories that would really sort of chill your blood. for minorities like yazidis or christians shia not minority but not considered real muslims by i.s.i.l. they are facing extinction. for those who are the right sect of islam, the sunnies are facing a future uncertain and a little control over. >> the women children flee and the men flee as well? >> a lot of the men flee as well, the ones i visited in the camps are full families. >> what are the conditions? >> bleak terrible, nothing any of us would want for our own sneams. families. the weather is temperate right now but in the winter it will be very rough. >> in some ways we are creating this group of homeless people.

and i don't mean us. but the world, this group of homeless people that are perpetually homeless. people from syria fled last year right, and they've been gone for a while. >> so many people, when they recount to me, they recount these times when they say to our spouses is this really what our lives are? are we not going back, they replay and turn to me and say is this our lives, is this possible that this is what comes next, day after day? >> you visited lebanon as well. >> yes. >> so talk about what is happening with the refugees there. >> lebanon is a different situation. lebanon is a place that's saturated where people are living on top of each other and there are no actual camps, where each individual family has to make their way, inside a country that can't handle them. that doesn't have room for their own people barely. >> when you say saturated what do you mean?

>> lebanon's population has increased by about a 4th in the last couple of years. >> hundreds of thousands of people? >> in lebanon we're talking about millions of people. >> around again, what do those people tell you? >> they tell me about their houses, the things that they miss, the things they left behind. they ask me more than what they tell me. is it true that the world is not going to do anything? is it true that our children are not going to go back to school, is its true that the house i finally made curtains for, that i had finally picked everything, so i had everything the way i wanted, is it really gone? >> what has lebanon had to say? >> it's a thicker skin a country who has gone through its only civil war. >> but they have a flood of refugees coming in. >> they say we can't take you, we don't want the problems --

people within lebanon's political problems have picked syria and they don't want the blow back to come. in lebanon i went to shatil, the palestinian refugee camp which now you can imagine the absurdity, it hosts syrian refugees. each family has had to navigate the situation for itself. >> well, it's a story that continues to grow. and sadly without a big solution as well. alia, it's good to have you ton program again, thanks. >> thank you. >> there's a culture of fear inside i.s.i.l, some of their ranks saw the danger and ran for their lives. they told us how and why they left. once again here's nick schifrin. >> every time abu walks into this turkish mosque he steps into a sanctuary and closes the

door on his troubled past. abu is the mosque's night guard, the boss is the guy he called his savior. if it were not for him, he would have been a suicide bomber in the islamic state of iraq and the levant. >> translator: i thought they had the highest understanding of the religion that was based on the koran. >> reporter: just eight months ago, abu became a young man in an i.s.i.l. training camp. this may be a training video but he says it's accurate. he learned how to fire an assault weapon, how to fight as a group, how to fight hand to hand. >> when you joined what did you think they offered you? >> translator: i at any time join them because i thought they could offer me anything or that i wanted something from them. i joined them because i thought they offered me the best religious path.

>> the man in this i.s.i.l. video giving fighters a pep talk. the day he realized he needed to leave i.s.i.l. was the day he killed a man. >> translator: i wouldn't want to kill a chick let alone a human being. i was forced to kill. what could i do? i regret it. i regret it. i was brainwashed. >> reporter: across town abu hamsa told me joined for military might. he was a moderate in the free syrian army. i.s.i.l. offered more weapons higher salaries even bonuses for successful missions. >> translator: as an fsa fighter i would come to a base and there would be no food or money. i.s.i.l. provided all these things as well as protection. >> reporter: but he slowly realized his commanders were former lieutenants in saddam hussein's iraqi army. he says they lied and claimed fsa fighters were actually

israelis. he found his commanders corrupt and brutal. today he's still scared of them. that's why he won't show his face. >> we saw that the i.s.i.l. command were criminals, criminals who take advantage of the minds of muslim men for implementing their own goals. >> reporter: sheik urged them to flee by offering them a job and a different kind of religious inspiration. the sheik used to fight with guns but today he fights with ideas. he travels to syrian refugee camps to debate i.s.i.l. missionaries to argue their version of islam is brutal and distorted. he argued the same to abu. >> translator: what is better? to wait on the battlefield to kill a woman or to help create an intellectual, a man who can bring to life a whole nation from his thinking? >> reporter: abu is the

group's greatest creation, but he applied for asigh legal in you're. the only way he feels safe is as far from i.s.i.l. as possible. >> and i.s.i.l. is still attracting fighters. according to the recent estimates from the cia, approximately 22 to 32,000 have joined i.s.i.l. earlier estimate was 10,000. said to be coming from 80 different nations. about 2,000 are believed to be from western countries. the crisis along turkey's border goes both ways, refugees flee out of syria as hundreds of foreign fighters trying to get in to join the ranks of i.s.i.l. nick schifrin says how easy it is to cross the border. >> reporter: the mountains that separate turkey from syrian aren't and obstacle, they're an invitation for omar. >> translator: people around the world wanted to help.

their hearts went out to the syrian people. >> reporter: and to get to syria all you have to do is walk to the edge of the city into this forest. this is rahanli, a turkish city and this barbed wire is the only thing separating this city from the syrian district of idlib. the military usually controls this area but right now there's nobody to stop me from hopping over and heading over the hill to syria. >> turkey said it kept its border porous. it wanted forces to fight syrian president bashar al-assad. >> we have people from all over the world who have brothers from bangladesh from australia from u.k. from cambodia. >> if you are depressed, the cure for the depression is. >> reporter: they inspire i.s.i.l.'s unprecedented social media campaign.

hundreds of propaganda videos highly produced well filmed, many featuring photogenic protagonists. each help recruit other foreigners. >> i'm from the u.k, my name is abdalla. i'm abdalla sharif from south africa. >> reporter: foreign fighters probably reject their citizenship for brotherhood in a self-declared islamic. state. a few dozen are american. >> after islam after iraq, we are going for you barack obama. >> reporter: the u.s. believes many of these men crossed into syria from turkey, under heavy u.s. pressure the turkish parliament voted to close the border and wage war on i.s.i.l. >> translator: we will fight effectively against islamic state and all other states in the region. >> reporter: today abu omar

last given up smuggling. and instead runs a falafel stand. >> translator: there are reservations about the policy and all countries have made i.s.i.l. the ocea ocean boogie . >> allowed to officially cross into syria are its tanks. >> still ahead how the group recruits and keeps its fighters on the front lines and how it's tearing families apart.

>> an al jazeera special report. five days of fear, escape from i.s.i.l. >> all week long we have been featuring our series five days of fear, escaping i.s.i.l. our nick schifrin has spoken to former i.s.i.l. fighters to syrians who have fled i.s.i.l.'s brutality to the front line fighters who battle i.s.i.l. even to smugglers who have

helped escape i.s.i.l. nick schifrin joins us one last time from istanbul. nick. >> reporter: john, good evening, there is no area closer to i.s.i.l. than turkey, not only men to fight for i.s.i.l.'s brutal sectarian war but also men and women to populate i.s.i.l.'s self declared islamic state. >> every time shahin akin looks through these photos, every time he comes here to work and flips through these pages he feels the family he had may never return. >> translator: i remember those beautiful days. i remember what i lived. it's impossible to forget those days. the day my child was born. >> reporter: six year ago he married svetlana, he was a muslim from turkey.

she was a christian from curg stan. she converted to islam, she put on a head scarf and became asimi, she wanted to marry a fighter from the islamic state of iraq and the levant. she asked for a divorce because she wanted to marry a fighter in the islamic state of iraq and the levant. >> translator: she completely isolated herself. her brain became stone. her eyes became closed. >> because their son was only three, the judge awarded his custody to her. and they disappeared. he created a facebook account, he posed as a woman and one day he had a break through. >> reporter: his discovery brought throim that building, this is an i.s.i.l. safe house. this is not a poor area full of

disaffection. svetlana and their son was lured here, by a recruiter. by the sometime shahin arrived here svetlana and their son had already crossed the border. she fled to the epicenter of i.s.i.l.'s brutality. i.s.i.l. calls this its headquarters. on the streets women must stay covered or risk public whipping but dozens of foreign women like svetlana pilgrimage here. an internet cafe, one woman speaks to her family in there >> translator: i don't want to come back. what you're saying is bull (bleep) if i want to come back i can't, i'm happy here. >> reporter: but shahin knows his son is not happy. do you feel the connection to your con? >> translator: i saw him in my dreams, he stretches out his hand and i try to take his hand but i'm paralyzed.

>> reporter: i.s.i.l. presents itself as family friendly. propaganda features family with kids. >> i'm thinking like i'm in a dream world. i'm in raqqa. >> reporter: i.s.i.l. has recruited thousands of families. ripped thousands of families apart. shahin hasn't opened this door in three months. this was his son's room, his favorite shirt. the hats he wore when they sailed together. the rocking horse he ate breakfast on. >> you keep this room as it is because you expect him to come back? >> translator: i want the world to help me, i want my child, give me back my child, his place is where he was born. >> reporter: and so he searches every night on his boat. it is named destin after his

son. shahin will keep hunting for all those who live in the islamic state of iraq and syria. >> nick there's been a lot of political back and forth in the region but i want to speak about the human element. is there relief given to the refugees who are still flowing out of syria? >> i think it's important that as we talk so much about the strategy to defeat i.s.i.l. about i.s.i.l.'s brutality about the group's success on the ground this is still a humanitarian story. this is still a story about a syrian civil war about the largest refugee crisis since world war ii where 9 million syrians, that's a third of the country no longer live in the homes that they used to live in three years ago. a place where 60% of all the hospitals have been destroyed, 40% of all the homes across the country have been damaged or

destroyed. so when you talk about the scale of this crisis absolutely not is the answer, that people are getting aid fast enough. we spent a lot of time right o the border, as a lot of syrian kurds are fleeing. over the last week and a half we have seen hundreds of people living in wedding halls for example, we've seen children lining up outside of turkish red crescent stands where they get soup and a bowl of rice, something they hold in just one hands, and that's supposed to need seven people. to feed seven people. turkey are has spent $7 billion to try to help the unofficial numbers in the country. the official number is probably -- the help can't

arrive fast enough. >> nick what's your impression? >> the towns and cities we've been in, among the syrians there -- we have talked to there's a thankfulness, a gratitude. but then there's a split. most of the people i speak to say exactly the same thing. that that if you are going to target i.s.i.l. you need to target the regime. that the fighters who are fighting on the ground, the free syrian army, the moderate syrians who need to be on the ground to defeat i.s.i.l. they have been fighting on two fronts this whole time, against i.s.i.l. and other groups and against the regime. and to a person all the fighters i've spoken to say we need to attack the regime. if you don't attack the regime in addition to i.s.i.l. we will not be able to be aggressive against i.s.i.l. and push i.s.i.l. back along the front lines. now there is also another strand john which is interesting of criticism that the u.s. strikes actually went too far the first night, the very first night the

u.s. said it targeted the leadership of khorasan, that's a small group made up of former lieutenants of osama bin laden, who had designs to attack the united states itself. nobody here has heard of that group. when they looked at that strikes they saw the targets of nusra, the all nusra group is the al qaeda group that has been fighting against i.s.i.l. so the fear is that by targeting both i.s.i.l. and nusra, those two groups will unite. it is not clear that will happen but john, there's been a lot of gratitude on the notion that the u.s. is finally coming in but a lot of criticism against the strikes on the ground. >> there are many who criticize them in this cub. but if air strikes isn't enough is there a sense of training what the government calls moderate syrian opposition and a lot of people are not sure what that means. but if it's a moderate syrian opposition can they take on i.s.i.l. on the ground? >> i think your skepticism is

absolutely right on. there is a question of whether you can find the right groups. whether they're unified enough whether they really are moderate. but let's just say that these groups who have been fighting for three years are slightly more modified. there is a lot of american intelligence agents, a lot of cia officials on the ground trying to figure out which people are the right people to train. that training will really kick into full gear in the next couple months thanks to saudi arabia and the u.s., that deal for $500 million to train all those people but no, the training hasn't started yet and we spend a lot of time with fighters and commanders on the syrian border and they all say, where's the training? you have been talking about this for weeks now and we haven't seen a single thing. this is an example, this is criticism of u.s. talking about helping the free syrian army, talking about the people fighting assad but not actually doing it. one leader put it to me this

way. they said look you have given us enough to survive barely but not enough to be aggressive and pushing the front forward. that's what they are asking for and they warn if the help doesn't come soon, not only will they lose to i.s.i.l, but they will also lose to the regime. >> nick are you getting an idea how long they will need to fight back i.s.i.l, to defeat cite? >> reporter: i'll put it this way, not a single political appointee who is appointed under the obama administration that when he or she loses his job when the next president comes in that this war will be over. everybody believes that this is going to take years. in a year you can only train 5,000 moderate syrian troops, free syrian army members. general dempsey the chairman of

the joint chiefs of staff says this will take years. not only of air strikes but of training. that's the certainly most important thing, whether the iraqi troops that we spent so many trillions on could actually push forward inside iraq and whether these moderate syrian fighters can push forward against i.s.i.l. in syria this cannot be done at all in the wars in syria and iraq for many years to come. >> nick schifrin, from istanbul. thank you very much. that's our special report, for tonight. thanks for joining us. i'm john siegenthaler. live.

>> i live in mosca, colorado aka the middle of nowhere. i can't always be myself. i'm considered one of the misfits. i haven't seen my mom in the longest time. my stepdad and i, we don't really see eye to eye. i really want to get out of here. i'm going to check out if i got accepted into colorado college. it is imperative that i get into college at this point. if i don't, i feel like i can't get out of mosca.