in one 14-month period of the 219 people killed in northern eastern afghanistan, only 35 of them were the intended targets. nonetheless, the military classified all of them as enemies killed in action. >> reporter: let's talk about the technology. you're in this room, you're watching, say, the same target, maybe, for weeks at a time and then hoop does it happen, does someone just pop their head in the room and say, okay, kill strike, activate kill strike. what happens? how does that occur? >> so, yeah. if we are sitting there following someone, we will be told, hey, get red to spin up your missiles, get ready to strike. maybe you will be told don't follow the vehicle, go back to the house. maybe you will follow one vehicle and they say we're going to strike this vehicle. get ready to do so. you don't know when or who is going to make the decision for you. >> reporter: do you know who you're striking? >> no. we don't. we just know that this person has validated some sort of nefarious algorithm. >> reporter: how is it determined a person is to be called. >> they kill people vi amet adat

eastern syria. i.s.i.l. is gaining ground in afghanistan where their greatest enemy is the taliban. mass pass >>> opposition forces begin an effort to push i.s.i.l. out of northern syria, days after president obama announced the presence of u.s. boots on the ground in syria. zeina khodr has more. >> reporter: america's partners on the ground, the syrian democratic forces announced the start of an offensive hoped to end i.s.i.l.'s presence in the nearby corner. the newly formed alliance includes kurdish, arab and assyrian forces and will receive the help of u.s. special forces, planned to be deployed to syria in the fight against i.s.i.l. >> reporter: we announced the first step to liberate syria, many are participating in the effort with the coordination and support of the u.s.-led coalition: u.s. backing for the syrian-kurdish y.p.g. is not now. many areas have been cleared in recent months, it's trying to recruit more groups from the syrian-arab majority to create a unified national force. the y.p.g. is criticized by many, including turkey, for creating their own state. >> when they are using the arab slogans, saying they have arab groups joining them. trying