jami macintyre our u.s. national security correspondent breaking that news here on al jazeera. >> there have been three battles in taiz after local resistance fighters broke into a prison and freed detainees there. militias in the area say it released those captured by houthi forces. taiz has been under houthi control since march. the city's airport is secured now, allowing in flights maybe to bring home refugees or fly in humanitarian aid. people you see here coming back from djibouti in the horn of africa. >> still ahead, 21 years old and a court in argentina looks at aftermath of that shocking attack. >> a city that suffered massive destruction in war japan remembers hiroshima. this is a great place to work. not because they have yoga meetings and a juice bar. because they're getting comcast business internet. comcast business offers convenient installation appointments that work around your schedule. and it takes- done. - about an hour. get reliable internet that's up to five times faster than dsl from t

jamie macintyre joins us live from the pentagon. good everything, jamie. the pentagon saying now about really the effectiveness of this campaign? >> reporter: well, morgan, clearly the pentagon is on the defensive because of the slow pace of progress against the islamic state. especially after the embarrassing admission this week that it's first attempt to field anti-isil forces in syria was pretty much a complete failure. still military planners here are echoing a familiar refrain, that a patient ma not cal strategy will eventually defeat isil u.s. first started bombing last summer, isil was estimated to have 20 between thousand and 30,000 fighters. now one year and 6,000 airstrikes later that estimate of troop strength is unchanged. while the u.s. claims to have killed some 10,000 isil forces they have been replaced by foreign fighters, stream ago cross the turkish board never to syria and then in to iraq, still the obamaed administration argues one year later isil is losing. >> in iraq icing has lost the freedom to operate in some 30% of the territory t

jami macintyre reports from the pentagon. >> drones or known at the pentagon, remotely piloted vehicles are becoming the weapon of choice for u.s. commanders around the world. take syria, the u.s. central command routinely releases cockpit votes of strikes against isil in syria but what it doesn't routinely says is those cockpit votes often have no one in the cockpit. drones are the weapons of choice in syria because of syria's active air defenses. the drones don't just attack. they also provide spy functions, what's called in the pentagon i.s.o. or intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance mission and what nato's top commander was here earlier this year, he said the competition among u.s. commanders around the world was fierce for those unblinking eyes in the sky. >> i.s.r. is always short. yes, i could use more, but i understand the calculus by which it has been apportioned at the way it's been apportioned right now. >> the u.s. air force conducts the bulk of drone missions around the world right now. right now it's capable of flying about 60 to 65 drones every day on missions for

jamie macintyre joins us live from the pentagon with the latest. jamie?> reporter: david, the u.s. has said all along, once the fighters it trained to take on isil got into harm's way it would have a moral obligation to come to their aid, but it stopped short of saying what form that aid could take until this past friday when the u.s. authorized air strikes to support the new syrian forces on the ground. smoke rises over the northern syrian city as a result of multiple u.s. zone strikes friday that help repel an attack on a group of syrian opposition fighters which included just over 50 members of what has been dubbed the new the pentagon says they were co-located with other syrian rebels. at least one u.s.-trained fighter was killed and two division 30 commanders were captured by the al-nusra front. the air strikes the pentagon says made good on the promise to provide air defensive power if the forces came under attack by anyone. but a pentagon spokesperson down played the idea that u.s. air power was broadly backing rebels fighting the go. >> we are not