there are new warnings about al qaeda s resurgence as it feeds on the chaos. a terrorist theft unfolding tonight. isis fighters have seized a camp in syria trapping palestinians including more than 3,000 children. our correspondents and analysts are standing by with all the new that s breaking right now. let s go to jim sciutto who has the latest. reporter: the clalhallenge is finding the bottom in yemen. it doesn t appear we have seen that yet. the situation continues to deteriorate deteriorate. no plans to evacuate. the houthi rebels they are trying to spread silence across the border into sound did i territory. this is yemen in collapse.
pakistanis and go down that path themselves. why isn t the u.s. able to help hundreds if not a few thousand american citizens who are stranded in yemen right now get out? because other countries are sending in emergency planes there s four-hour windows, the indian government for example. why isn t the u.s.? india, russia china. first thing is the number. the state department won t say how many americans in yemen have registered with the embassy there because they don t know what percentage that is. is it 10%, is it nearly 100%. they don t have a hard figure on the numbers. the airport is closed. the state department will say we have been telling americans there for some time now this is not a safe place to go we have limited ability to get you out. the best advice they are offering now is to shelter in place. but for the americans there, we saw the man killed yesterday, got to be frustrating advice. is there anything bob baer the u.s. can do to help u.s. citizens get out of there
particularly now. reporter: the departure of all u.s. forces diplomats and intelligence gathering resources leaves a one-time counter terrorist success story in disarray. a u.s. counter terror official calls the situation, dire. warns the terror group al qaeda in the arabian pa nin sueninsula stands to gain. very concerning to have the u.s. operating blindly in yemen. one of the organizations that has been most interested and capable of conducting strikes in the homeland has increased its control of territory. reporter: also standing to gain iran. houthi rebels who have u.s. ally government forces on the run are backed by tear ran. the u.s. is monitoring whether iran is sending arms to them. even in the midst of progress on
how hard is it to track the young people? they may think of doing something. they may be online social media saying nice things about isis. then somebody from the fbi starts talking to them. what happens then? ard cogsocial media say great boon. there s a disadvantage it s recruiting people. it s legal for the fbi to monitor twitter and facebook. the kids don t understand what they are doing is public. most of the cases are emerging out of social media postings. not all of them but most of them. how worries should u.s. officials be right now, general hertling that so many of the u.s. counterterrorism capabilities in yemen have disappeared with the collapse of regime the u.s. leaving the embassy, all u.s. military personnel out? what s going on over there this had is the home aqap which has a lot of capabilities. they have made no secret of their desire to strike the u.s.
their air defenses their command and control centers. it s moving according to plan and being very very effective. we have ten coalition countries operating with us and we have support from the united states which we very much appreciate. this campaign is having a huge impact in yemen and it is not over yet. for us, failure is not an option. we will destroy the houthis if they don t come to reason and go to the negotiating table and work this out. you have seen all the reports, though mr. ambassador that the prisoners, they busted open a prison nearly 300 al qaeda and other prisoners, terrorists, are now free. our reporter was there in sanaa, she flew in with an indian aircraft. they got people scrambling to get out. she says it s a disaster over there. well, wars are never orderly but we have taken every precaution to make sure that civilians are not damaged. we have taken every precaution to make sure the targets we hit are the targets that we intend to hit and we have done so. w