it is a difficult drive to the manbij frontlines. i.s. retreated but have left mines and roadside bombs. kurdish and arab fighters have encircled the city. the islamic state is under siege. we are at the gates of manbij . god willing we will end i.s. injustice and free our families. correspondent: they face a determined enemy. this fighter was second away from detonating his suicide will. -- suicide dealt. >> we send special forces underground. we were told to stop filming. this is what coalition airpower can do. here, you can see one of the i.s. positions. even behind the front lines, these disp displaced farmers are not safe. we were in that village a few minutes ago. i can see the smoke rising from the village. i think something happened in the village. is down, they are far from out of the fight. it makes these arab fighters nervous. they think they are coming under attack. reveals it is civilians they are firing on. they have been living under strict i.s. control for more than 2-years. killed killed us, they our children. they made u

reporter: northbound on a mission to take manbij.his footage broadcast by a kurdish news shows u.s. commanders accompanying kurdish-led forces. this convoy will come face-to-face with the islamic state group in manbij. months of critical groundwork have led to this tactical maneuver. the main water supply for northern area was liberated by after two years under islamic state group control. airstrikes could -- destroyed a bridge north of manbij, isolating the city on two fronts. the u.s. military mounted a bridge across the u brady's -- the euphrates river. if all goes to plan, the offense will sever a strategic transit point. manbjij lies on the main route. the city itself is an operational hub, with terror strikes against europe, turkey, -- where terror strikes against europe, turkey, and the u.s. are set in motion. >> it is one of the first house that they controlled in 2014. it is the first town even before raqqa was implemented, their law where they created islamic justice and training camps. at the time, they succeeded in making

the city of manbij with a quarter of a million people in harm's way there.civilians trying to flee the fighting in fallujah. there are reports they are being shot on the spot by isis. the u.s. is playing a key role from the air and sea. the "uss harry truman" dropping more on toargets. we have frederik pleitgen who spent time on "harry truman." fred, an interesting deployment of this carrier to get closer to the action, no? >> reporter: you are absolutely right. they did get closer to the action. the "uss harry truman" was station in the gulf. that aircraft carrier has been moved closer to the mediterranean where it has a few minutes of flight time and you are over northern syria and eastern syria as well. you mentioned no other ship in the u.s. fleet has dropped more ordinance on isis. dropping up to 1.5 million pounds of ammunition. a lot of air strikes flown. we were on the carrier and talked to some of the pilots flying the first missions from here in the mediterranean. they say right now what it is is the close air combat. they are told of a target and

attacks, sitting there all day in the heart of a crowded apartment building, and that is why after manbij, we are to move down and isolate raqq. -- raqqa. mendezrker: with senator . senator mendez: we appreciate your work and wish you the best of luck. but i is some real concerns as i read the testimony and listened to some of your responses, so let me try and see if you can -- help mewage them with them. i want to return to the cia director's remarks, where he said against them on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduce the group's terrorism and global reach and goes on to say the group would have to suffer even heavier losses, territory, for its terror capacity to decline significantly, and, in fact, we judge it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance on the global terrorism agenda. and then i heard your response to senator cardin, when he asked, for example, in iraq, after we take territory back? and it begs the question, aren't we repeating past mistakes? these are places where our men and women gave their lives. midst of eng

they have reportedly encircled the town of manbij, which is an isis stronghold, but the fighting has trapped thousands of civilians. in bangladesh, isis is claiming responsibility for yesterday's stabbing murder of a hindu monastery worker, the latest in a wave of similar attacks. people took to the streets in the capital of dhaka, today to protest the execution-style killings of religious minorities in the sunni-muslim majority country. officials say islamic radicals have killed at least 18 people in the past two years, including aid workers, professors, gay rights activists, and members of the hindu, christian, and shiite muslim minorities. under pressure to stop the killings, bangladesh police have detained 1,600 suspects in the past few days, but officials said only a few dozen are suspected islamic militants. train, trash, and now airline strikes are plaguing france. when air france pilots went on strike today to protest a pay cut, the airline cancelled 20% of its flights. pilots say they won't fly for four days. the strike comes just as france is hosting two million visitors at

probably right now the more significant front in syria is that manbij area.n the border between turkey and syria, and it's been an objective both the u.s. and the russians for a very long time to try and cut isis' access to the turkish border because that's the why isis gets weapons, funding, and also additional fighters into its territory. and so they want to cut isis off from turkish territory to make sure they don't have access to that anymore, make it more difficult for isis to replenish its ranks. therefore that offensive that's going on around the manbij area is something we cannot overstate the importance of trying to seal the border between turkey and syria. >> frederick pleitgen live in greece with the latest on the battle against isis. appreciate that, fred. thanks. >>> national public radio news is mourning the death of two journalists of its own. they were killed in an attack while covering the ongoing conflict in afghanistan. we'll have the story just ahead. >>> also swimmers on edge in western australia after two fatal shark attacks. what's goin

in manbij, where u.s.-backed kurdish and arab fighters are slowly gaining ground against ferocious resistance in this key town, which lies on a crucial supply line to the isis capitol raqqa. isis is clearly under enormous pressure across this region. but that doesn't mean that the syrian war is anywhere close to winding down. in fact, isis fighters have actually retaken territory from the syrian army in several areas this month. and the limited ceasefire declared in february has completely broken down. we spoke to a syrian general today who admitted to us that the only way to end this war is to craft a political deal that would involve both russia and the united states. but kristine, right now all the diplomatic negotiations are completely stalled. >> johnson: liz palmer in damascus, thank you. in sacramento california, a clash with a white supremacist rally has lead to multiple stabbings. a warning, the video is disturbing. this was the chaotic scene near the state capitol. counter demonstrators had vowed

backed forces have taken control of the manbij road, cutting off a key supply route. >>> and russianalso got into raqqah. >>> our own ben wedeman reports now has more. security forces have recaptured a key small town north of fallujah in a separate assault. we want to warn you some of the video in this report may be disturbing. >> iraqi army carriers rattle through the edge of the town. iraqi officials announced saturday they had taken control of most of the town. the short drive from the besieged isis strong hold of fallujah. the battle rages on however as a combination of the iraqi military, police, and fighters prepares for the next phase. these locally made rocket launchers have been brought up to the front for the eventual offensive to retake fallujah. they have a range of about 2 1/2 kilometers. fallujah itself is about 4 kilometers from here. fighting has been intense, but this veteran of many battles with isis senses an enemy beginning to wither away. their forces have dispersed he says. some have retreated to the center of fallujah. others have pled into the -- fled into the

backed forces have syria surrounded on the city of manbij.re. in iraq, civilians trying to flee in fallujah are being shot on site by isis. the "uss harry truman" is now dropping artillery than any other fleet. we have frederik pleitgen live on the island of crete. fred, give us the scope of the operation. >> reporter: it was around the clock operations 24/7. we were on the flight deck of "harry truman." they would launch and recover jets. it was an intense aerial campaign that we saw. certainly the numbers also are something that support that as well. john, the carrier has flown over isis targets dropping 1.5 million pounds of munitions. pilots tried to use smaller artillery and hit smaller targets to try to stop isis and prevent civilian casualties. there are still hundreds of thousands in iraq and syria. we have been talking about the situation in fallujah where civilians are shot by isis as they try to leave the city. others are simply trying to get away and some going into refrigerators and trying to use them as flotation devices to get

kurdish fighters advanced on manbij, which sits on a major supply route to raqqa, the militants' de-factoital. meanwhile, aid groups said isis forces in iraq are shooting civilians trying to flee fallujah by boat and other means. a government offensive there has stalled. >> ifill: the u.s. navy has banned alcohol for american sailors in japan, over a string of incidents. the latest was sunday's arrest of a sailor who drove the wrong way and hit two other vehicles on okinawa. in washington today, the pentagon's peter cook said banning drinking and confining sailors to base are essential steps. >> by making sure each service member understands how their actions affected the u.s.-japan alliance. the department remains committed to working with the government of japan and the people of japan to prevent such incidents in the future. >> ifill: all this comes amid a renewed effort on okinawa to remove u.s. bases. >> woodruff: there will be no criminal charges filed against the family of a three-year-old boy who fell into a gorilla's enclosure at the cincinnati zoo. zoo staffers shot and killed t

by the way, less publicized i think is the effort that's ongoing there to take a pocket called a manbij pocket which is the link between turkey and raqqa, the capital of the islamic state. and that would be a stride their logistical lines and another offensive ongoing there as well. >> rose: and i'm grad you brought that up. syria, should we expect to see move gengs raqqa. >> there will be eventually. >> rose: i know eventually. but now, this president. >> i don't know that you will see-- you could see it in the coming months. >> but right now what you have to do is shape this. in the same way fallujah has been shaped by being ensiecialged and they cleared the villages immediately around it and you keep doing this so that you now have it isolated, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to isolate raqqa and also to generate the forces that could ultimately hold raqqa. you can clear it to some degree with the syrian kurds. but you don't want to push them much farther than the areas that they should ultimately control. and if you go into a sunni arab predominant area like raqqa, you

in addition to efforts underway to liberate cities like fallujah and manbij, the coalition is moving isil is from the battlefield reducing the goods capabilities and its will to fight the last month a u.s. airstrike killed and influential isolator in al anbar. isil, however, is a formidable resilient and largely cohesive enemy and we anticipate the group will adjust its strategy in an effort to regain momentum. in the coming months we can expect isil to probe the frontlines of its adversaries on the battlefield weaknesses to harass the forces that are holding the cities it controlled coming to conduct terror attacks against enemies inside iraq and syria. two comments eight for losses, isil will rely more on guerrilla tactics, including high profile attacks outside the territory that it currently holds. a steady stream of attacks in baghdad and damascus demonstrates the groups ability to penetrate deep inside enemy strongholds. beyond its losses on the battlefield, isil's finances are taking a hit. coalition efforts have reduced the groups ability to generate revenue and to force it t