September marks the first anniversary of the U.S. war against the Islamic State group (ISIS), but American efforts are showing little success, NBC News reported on Sunday.

Turkey's recent permission for airstrikes and drone missions to be based there was "a huge tactical gain," NBC's Richard Engel reported on "Meet the Press," but added, "ISIS doesn't seem to be shrinking."

Engel quoted one U.S. officials as saying the terror group's international branches are "growing like crazy," spreading North and West Africa, Arabia, Afghanistan and into the Far East.

"ISIS has expanded far more quickly and extensively than Al Qaeda ever did," Engel said.

Special Operations is in the middle of a major policy review to find a new global strategy to deal with ISIS, Engel reported.

The current strategy is based on three pillars, "and they're all shaky," Engel said. Retraining of the Iraqi army has been slow, and Iran often calls the shots, he said. Only a few Syrian rebels have been trained, and many have been kidnapped already. The airstrikes have been successful in killing ISIS leaders and fighters, but they all are quickly replaced.

The war against ISIS didn't begin soon enough for many observers anyway after President Barack Obama initially described the group as the "J.V. squad."