richard engle, nbc news, in northern syria. >> to repeat, richard and his team that he's shooting withere able to leave areha. they're safe tonight. i should also tell you that nbc news confirmed something that was initially reported by reuters which is that president obama has apparently signed what's called a presidential finding, authorizing unspecified support, apparently not weapons, but other kinds of support to the libyan rebels in syria, specifically to help them oust the assad regime. in terms of what we are actually doing to help the rebels, it reportedly involves u.s. personnel helping at a secret command center operated by turkey along with some other countries. the syrian war seems to be on an almost infinite escalation track right now, but it's as hard to cover as ever. we'll be right back. direct rates side by side to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today

richard engle, nbc news in northern syria. >> two things here. number one, we are happy to be able to report that after filing his report richard and his team were able to safely get out of ariha and are now safe and in northern syria. one more note here we learned prior to going on the air, tonight nbc news has been able to confirm that president obama has signed an order calling for mostly clandestine u.s. forces to support the rebels in syria. >>> domestically another piece of president obama's signature health care law went into effect today and includes preventative care for as many as 47 million women including access to contraceptives at no charge and by going into effect started the health care fight all over again. nbc's kelly o'donnell has the story. >> reporter: from free birth control to annual checkups, millions of american women with private health insurance could begin to save money and that means no out of pocket copays for many preventive services. as dr. paula johnson says this gives women an incentive to get care. >> this is a c

only from verizon. >>> nbc's chief foreign correspondent is richard engle.n a safe place in syria. but he was caught in the middle of major fighting about 40 miles outside of the city of alepo. watch this report from richard today. >> at 11:00 a.m., attack helicopters circle the sky over the city of arihah. from a roof top, we hear their assault begin. it sounds like artillery from the helicopters. we mouv down to the alleys to try to find out why syrian forces are attacking this city of 70,000 south of alepo. we see civilians fleeing from open areas, searching for cover. and rebels on motorcycles in the main square. it appears that a large military convoy was passing by this town on the way to join the attack on alepo. and as the troops were moving past here, the rebels in this town opened fire on them. in a make shift rebel media center, activists tried to upload videos of the attack they have takenupload videos of the attack they've taken with small cameras. they show me syrian tanks are now firing into arihah. the rebels attack the convoy to prevent rein