that's it you're up to date more at the top off our course are around the clock on our website stay w. dot com i'm going to. let everyone. know we were. in the percent of americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship. listening. to. science.

driving into russia is an eerie calm and breathtaking destruction as far as the eye can see. a once thriving city of two hundred sixty thousand people reduced to rubble why you he's leading a stroke. it's hard to imagine you could have a return to what it once was. the first stop is the most notorious location in the city not scoring. a gig it was once the vibrant heart of rock. we meet a truck driver khaled swain who shows this round. you know one of my that's heaven

squared it was called square of heaven but now it's square of elm we used to love wandering around this place but because of the killings we started meeting. more toward. khaled was among many fools to witness the beheadings that became the defining symbol of the ice here. here in the square i asked what shop debts off and stick heads obviates all around the square this is where they would execute people and have a lot lot of luck whatever you have to be punished a shot but it would terrorize people with. your i was shot because. the propaganda videos of those killings horrified many around the world. this is where iraq his children were forced to watch it all happen he had big plasma t.v.'s children could watch the punishments death and executions the t.v.'s were

everywhere they can see the scene. and so and i'm not mandatory. the children used to get every if they saw a chicken killed. as a god but after a while they were never in a care if humans were executed because our life and it was hell. a lot out of. place. as we go deeper into the city the overwhelming scale of the destruction becomes clear. we see signs that mother is return from injury and. iraq is east bulldozers are at work clearing the rugs. the wrist seems like an

enormous even impossible time scale. amid the rubble and it was not. she and her brother a painstakingly salvaging what's left of the family home and grocery store. when i went. what i won't be able to return to even one percent of the way to live. across the road this selling new british but was no kind of food. she's a widow who have six children. during the war that made her an easy target for islamic state but they picked the wrong woman. that they would come to me and tell me to leave the house but i wouldn't. they occupied our neighbor's house and made it their headquarters but i believe they

killed the hell. yes he was killed they said i was a regime thug and killed him but we didn't leave our house we refused. i aspired his told was not to shut down his shop and remarry all live off islamic charity. and that they were me and after i refused to obey three times they threatened to take me to the religious police. and i told them if i leave the shop door while i will break a stick on your head i'd rather fire a bullet into my head than leave my shop at the mirror. when she stood her ground and i aspired to hit her. they came to the shop and told me to go with them to the religious police. i asked them why because i refused to close my shop and i told them that if you were a real man you wouldn't hit

a woman why did you slap me. was this bravery is remarkable and she still struggles with what she endured. what more can i say. they mistreated us what can i say. only god can help us. when they came here they brought any chaos and destruction with them we were waiting for the day to get our freedom back in rocca we were waiting for our freedom we were hoping one day and night. we were waiting for the day of freedom to come and have you in the pub remember. the terrible irony is that after was not fought so hard and risked so much it was

a us with a strike that destroyed the family business. when the air strike hits i was suddenly thrown across the room. i couldn't hear any more i was hit by the shrapnel i took off my chin next so that it wouldn't hurt me by being back after the smoke here we all went to the streets or. the bar lower floor i thought i'll bet they were on our back under islamic state rule who the biggest fear was for her children especially her eldest daughter so. i think that i s. would see her she's pretty i wouldn't let her now sit in. even when i had to take my daughters to their answer uncles they would be in full shari'a outfits and i wouldn't let anyone see their faces. again

they send women to our house to ask if we had girls for marriage or any bathroom i do not agree in when we said no and it's been there we had nothing we were here. not for that and i think. the children to shield her in a village outside of the city with a father who's desperately ill shirley. despite all the problems this extraordinary woman is looking forward to a new era. in all of the people are afraid women and men. still afraid of i guess let us take a look at meet face to face if there is still one of them still living on and let him say well let him see me you clearly know i'm not afraid of him so every here. even if he's going to come from underground let him come over let i asked ross and

the ones who brought i is right with that. one back i'm not afraid of anyone i s. or anyone else what i may have that. view looking because it's a disaster zone and explosives are everywhere. we find a mood and a drive home made bombs just lying around. mines and booby traps litter the city. finding new casualties every day. as we drive through the pickup truck races a good carrying the like to speak. with all of the truth. to me from the good donated militia that liberated the city with the help of usa is

from. our word for soldiers that are mine it flipped over we rescued two of them. you know. ok i'm just keeping an eye on everything. yeah it could be a fresh one. in this rubble as it was. in the midst of all this we find in australia want to relive it soon. or clean this forever for that. jamie williams is among a group of foreigners in the kurdish forces now the findings finished they helping with the cleanup.

they were good at that with the mouth. they find an unexploded schill in the rubble by the rush. of cut a second artillery rounds that's partially covered in rubble of a puff we just walked on and i thought he just walked on yes so we're going to hook up with a rope and sykes our position is give it a thought. struck him but. you want to mark over the. thing. it's a pine strikingly slow business. after several attempts to move her is point three it can now be dumped elsewhere. between the minds and the unexploded ordnance is

there we work in this place for years and. now you're talking jamie we came here and i pull last year to find out i use. my eyes want to be in the military and growing up watching war movies playing with toy guns all that sort of stuff i always admired the papal soldiers that put themselves in difficult situations you know willing to put their life on the line for the betterment of others. in the one . we have here maybe we could say yeah. oh yeah well of us here so you just take the shoes off so this is home yeah for now . they say. they said directional anti-personnel mine he's staying here with

a handful of other western fighters this was just hidden under a piece of material it's got the ball bearings in it one of these ball bearings can drop strike three they do a lot of damage. we have lost one person a member of our team that was with us for doing mining bad. yeah he wasn't actually. trying to save them on himself. it was some fortunate. pay one hundred one that was in the area yeah. it was a that was almost twenty fifth of this month so. all these. decimate the civilian population every day there's explosions you can hear from syrians going home trying to rape in the house trying to you know pick up the pieces of what's left of the house. australian counter-terrorism authorities have been monitoring jimmy williams for a long time. when he first tried to come to syria in light twenty fourteen he was

stopped at melbourne a port then charged with crimes that could have seen him seem to unstick to life in prison. without offering an explanation the federal government dropped the prosecution good to get. your sorry position where we were fighting he made it here for the final battle for iraq. is pretty balled up the whole fight rocka bush block by block alliance but were constantly changing it was hard for me yet again forced. to keep track of where the lines were. in twenty eleven jamie williams tried to join the australian army but was knocked back because of a drink driving conviction so he joined the french foreign legion and stayed trying to move through or got combat training i wanted to explosives so i was trained as a squad boxman so it's not far off a training gave me confidence in what i was doing here. through here if you guys

are ok with it was full of mice and steps pretty much in iraq he says kurdish commanders kept foreign fighters away from the frontline it was a bit worrying he takes us to the scene of their only real battle with ah yes which is known in arabic is dutch with all the dots just up where that that is ok. this is where his team was ordered to move through the block of flats and control the street beyond. us or got to his position and they point to there and said this whole if yeah that's a dash. so you have to go through that hole yeah no no it was only i was not you know. the mission didn't go to play. or got ambushed. within five metres routes or five from that another ten fifteen metres across the road one of our guys had hit in that exchange. a colleague was killed. the team was

forced to hole up here trying to work out how to get his body out. as well with the i would in the radio communication saying that. coming from the east from here from the front from everywhere through on that level all of us were there at that stage thinking how do we defend this place. and we took fire from that hole in the wall there into this this room here with these guys with. as soon as they took fire from their hands up with big cia case everything pretty sure i gave them a good fright hopefully they'll get him. well back here with the pain straightens i was stuck here all night so any time i heard any movement any scuffling anything underneath me pick up the grenade get it ready sic the rifle over shoot down the stairs couple rounds for five rounds pull the pin thread of an idea and these are the pictures that we had left behind yeah there are hundreds this year. or this through here should be a few more and somewhere. i think i threw maybe half

a dozen items from the staircase. us lead instruction save the lines there was i c one thirty gun fire which was bombarding the whole area one big half circle as if you're around us there was a lot of fire for quite a while which is comforting because you know you know they're they've got their back but at the same time is worrying because damage to targets that they can see so knowing that they're shooting that much that just says that there was that many targets in the area for them so you're. under australian law jamie williams could be jailed for entering the bandi area and being a foreign fighter. but he argues fighting for the kurds he is not a crime because they are in effect the government in this part of syria. i don't think i've done anything wrong he supported the good guys in this fight i would say

you know dash is the enemy of the world and kurds are. going to be a good because systems are going to be good for this region they need the kurds here they need this system they need to moccasins so i think i don't think if anything. they were other australians on the battlefield they were fighting for i. was part of the reason i came here to find kill any australian dash that i could unfortunately that hasn't happened but i know i would have lost of course one of those of us. the most notorious was college. a convicted terrorist who shot to global infamy for posting photos of his son holding a severed he'd. sure ruth and his family lived in russia and i want to find out more about their lives he. worked out where how it was living back in

two thousand and fifteen when some u.v.b. girls had been keeping as domestic flights a skype i knew them and i showed me some not all fun pictures they'd taken of the outside of his house which allowed me to pinpoint the location on google earth and came to see what's become of the life but to get there. we have to cross the euphrates river. with the bridges blown this is the only way to get in trouble. with. jamie williams and his team come along. we have no idea if i use sympathises is still hanging around in the syrian government forces are about fifteen kilometers away. so we need to get across the river and back as quickly as possible. on the way our van tanks are run

into. using the coordinates of the track our path as we close in. soon a cleveland polluted tower comes into view. or. that's it. that night the house or if it's living in one of men if i'm not a neighbor emerges and confirms we are in the right plants. several times with shovels but nothing. i thought. he was a bit like me big like me the same but i don't. know that because we had a scuffle he forced his way and i'm scared out of it i started getting in. abdulaziz been killing remembers your roof is a grand standing thug. he was playing

a big being and i asked commander islamic state and so why did you even hear that neighbor he got into his house and humiliated i don't even want to execute him. abilities off is an unprecedented insight into sharif's life he thought of running sure roof and i never liked each other whenever he'd come outside as soon as he'd seen me want to carry his weapons and fire into the air like yours trying to make a point. i was like i'm here and i've got weapons. and yeah. she roof lived in the house with his wife tara nettleton and they five children. children were very tough so you were a real problem although we had a shooting range here in the. bottom of the guns and lots of ammunition.

they set the targets appear. to have drawn people take a look at me. while years have passed the house still feels hooted by the tragedy of this family's life. how could walk along to sure if children. just a little kid. there were traces of children everywhere. i go up over that's what shuras children used to wear that's a very small size small one ignore that and that too was for the little one while he was. while the willed story midges of them willing weapons the neighbors saw children who seemed terribly isolated in the new land.

hardly understood arabic it was hard for them sometimes we got a feeling that they didn't understand and. i did ask a lot of questions about the purpose of everything what i try to learn but they didn't know how to engage and if you asked them about something that said i wouldn't answer. abdulaziz confirms this is wish the roof kept the easy the girls who'd been kidnapped from northern iraq. he took them from their parents and that was extremely wrong. i mean a left a lot of time because. he wouldn't even let them out here in the courtyard. that we'd see them from a distance they were frightened. and the river surely afraid that he'd spot them had been or in very good argument. i tracked down the easy to girls three years ago we northern iraq. one of them told me how she roofs one of

tara hated life in russia. his wife said she regretted going there and that she didn't know what it has been it was doing before she arrived she said it's a miserable place this religion is so bad if i'd known i would never have come here his wife credible day for her husband to be mounted so that they could return. they also told me it was tara who helped them escape by giving them a mobile fund to call their families as. she couldn't show her kindness towards us in front of her husband it was secrets. she prayed for us to be released and advised us to escape in sequence she said if my husband knew anything about what i'm doing for you he would punish me. is remembers what happened when the girls a skype washer then of the highest religious police came and asked about him said

they are using the girl this risque prick here and they accused us of hiding them i said we didn't know anything about it and just seen a girl's room come to us via the mother you know i've been there you know syria's neighbors often complained to i it's about his behavior and eventually i use moved against team job or. posted and i have supervisor keep an eye on it though even i signed. a south number two am two cars came i. called them security cars they took him at two am smart screaming at one or two am not going to go out and they argued a lot here in the building i mean you've got a judge or you know. your roots life in the house did come to any. of that and i did the very last time i saw him i was at the eye doctor. the thought i had when he saw me i was giving my name to the nurse she told me to wait my turn

what it was again. he came up to me and he was surprised and he started like. he was afraid i had because i asked was losing ground tough when. the don't offer. college a roof was reportedly killed along with two of his son and a u.s. coalition instructor in iraq agree notice last week. tara newton's believed to have died off to surgery for appendicitis in september twenty fifth during the fight of the other children is unclear. of this. but really was surreal being at a house where so many of the tourists things happen. to any man like the islamic state group itself. it's all come to nothing.

and where are we going i was headed then to the stadium which was one of the last opulence out but for the surrender. the football stadium in the heart of russia is where i simply did terrible punishment sonex prison. they spent most of the time when they got to this growing so we're going to check it out small tunnels and what not to have the sandbags are all pretty good progress for the it's. gonna sandbags yeah yeah. darius this is a sort of underground place that's here. what was this this is

a shooting i'm sitting right here you can see there's. lots of holes in the walls all the way down. and i've got. this is a paper here is robel holds. the boards. up. even though they were pretty much secluded underground that was to have been through training and become more effective at killing people. it's even equipped with secret tunnels so one of the tunnels they use last ten minutes. ten meters and then there's a hole at the end that shoots off in that direction i haven't been down there personally all these tunnels most definitely be mined a tunnel like this would mean that maybe they could get in behind wherever you were and about behind you yeah that's why whenever we had a line that was the forward main threat position your eyes had to be watching your

ear as well. as you know they could pop up anywhere at any time. most of these rooms were used as a prison and torture chamber it's been explained to me that this was a form of punishment in this. prison is here is a form of punishment it's called in arabic. yeah pretty unpleasant things like down there for who knows how long the pressure would like to put the lid on top of you and just be there in pitch black nothing with the stink. but there on you smile abuse about another member of the anti ice militia tells me what he means you'd hear with them that they are blowing up a book. but he was detained for six weeks in tortured for days only. little by me a little while behold they took a green a plumbing pipe and they beat me. on my stomach legs and i was screaming

you know and screaming well i spent two days here. today yannick and two days on i mean you know i knew. about the lady handcuffed me like that and hung me up there. and it was a good life you took the plumbing pipe and beat me hard again with the pot a lot of olive oil all over my body you haven't played focus on the muscle and so you couldn't move from here. come up and they hung me up there and i spent five to six days like that concept that is. you messing with a lot of people for church so much that they even say that their father was bashar al assad with blood only it doesn't matter who my father is as long as i get out of here i think many people who died from torture this is

a bid from where i supplied electric shocks to prison i look about this was the torture room. they don't arrest the prisoner and leave him and shorts and a shirt. off book the cut off on a plane down here and attach electric wires on. women were also killed he said he smelled just a brief glimpse but of course he could hear them and it's fun and at the end there the moment when we were in our cell he'd hear women yelling from torture and beatings. with any of the i asked men used disrespectful words calling them bitches prostitutes awful language and came up with the accordion i knew. even the graffiti has a radical bent but on that i don't draw three feet here's a drawing of a truck. it's a suicide bomber that wants to use

a vehicle and blowing himself up. and here are some snipers going up. and there are sons of the measures they took to disguise themselves in disguise. look and that's beard hair from highest fighters. when they lost against the s.d.f. they shave their beards so that no one would recognize they want to miss. this that's why i asked beard day that i'd wind up on tonight. the battle for iraq it ended with a crushing defeat of violence but a controversial do you. think. you're anticipating he was of

us not to be had so we had a god on this. in the court to conceive and that straight. jamie williams and his team watching as the jihad is to prepare for a negotiated a sky we could see through the binoculars guys coming out of buildings and popping up from all of the place congregating in their roundabout their open area down there and we were told we got the orders over the radio die sure just basically die sure if you seen a dash just you know i sure like. the secret deal was done between me you respect forces and use linux day to live hundreds of hard cool finals and their families leave the scene. for us or for us there are lads will go to go fight another day somewhere else so

how do you feel that in the end that did get what. pastes me honest yeah there's sneaky they they had that tied up the sleeve and they played it well. for jimmy williams this war is coming to any. do you plan on going back to a struggle sometime in. are you worried you'll be arrested. not so watch worried but i would say innocently concerned yes of course i'll be interested in questioning on anderson to meet. the people of rock to a still dealing with the world is deadly legacy. there are so many hidden mines the task of clearing them is daunting. with regard to. the name of these kurdish the mining team led by abdul hamad i spend every dime risking their lives trying to make this city saif. i met anybody i went been told

lettuce and tires on is dangerous there are mines here before i asked life to house i now you know. their equipment is basic some middle to take does and a long link the right. they could be blown up any second. invaded them in. our lives are in danger to be with and often i said he was the islam extend capital as i and i sleep or cells here and lions was remote control devices and it got the. base so come to some explosives seems almost routine. it's not long before they find a month they've removed the detonator the fear is it could still be booby trapped and they pull it from a safe distance. if

it had gone off it could have killed anyone within fifty meet. the explosives coming all shapes and sizes this is a small and he puts an ill mind but what oh i didn't like this all. the trigger is a thing one started with little switches the connect done depression. they both mostly put the wire out like this and when you step on it it explodes. the bowmen sylph is a tightly packed load of explosives behind a layer of ball bearings. if someone touches or steps on this device he and anyone nearby will be on killed instantly. the greatest hope is the da is his targeting civilians even children and that plays out we wouldn't find out where they are hidden the mine. is i would stay put mines

in but games fridges and even under pillows by five it. amid his already seen several of his colleagues queue. and what they think a lot of its hard won mine explodes and kills five of your friends or quite. well then you have them at night and the second part of it that you lose a friend and colleague you see is courts on the ground you almost stop it really almost going to help with. despite the tragedy they continue they would and on this mission in the space of just half an hour they collect a small loss and. one how about him and both of our goal was to remove the mines to save people they may be gone that we'll stay here going to the mines.

these almost no help from the international community. the people of russia a doing it for them so. they did in the face of tyranny and the determination to bounce back or inspire. them that's my house. and i don't know and here i had three flats that were destroyed by airstrikes and i thank god the children are said don't go we'll build here i'm going to be. the mother of the little children are safe and we brought them here well you have no money. so little horatio has lost almost all he has but he's still counting his blessings oh is that i thought

a lot of what did you think when you first saw this one one hundred i got actually are fine. we can rebuild i don't know place what was damaged. thank god. each child is priceless man or fine thank god it. was you know how good . a little and his wife fatima look forward to sending the children back to school i go to the newsroom i go to the misrule through under i s. just getting an education could be deadly. i mean i did also met education and the rule was forbidden they wanted people to be ignorant bad to me off i female university students were walking back home they were captured and we heard that they were beheaded man and. woman that as much as the schools were shut down children had nothing to do have

a good husband. i see their last cent my younger children to have a private teacher how that they go in the mornings and after literary hours they come back. we were very afraid of course very afraid it was the whole i just wanted them to learn how to react and write. and thank god they did learn later. my duty is to teach them as much as i can. so i look i don't i want to i wasn't aware that it was. a little in fatima i determined to reopen the issue silly windows and do. them always come on boys come on we need to finish. the you can have to remove it to let you know did i see you go see you sir it's interesting that these. dollars and over come closer at the back of.

it's the kind of resilience that offers a glimmer of hope for this city. above all else they want a little normalcy and dignity back in their lives. but. it's freezing and we need feel. international countries should help us the dead are dead but the people still are almost like dead. but welcome to the yeah we want rather like it used to be with schools and hospitals. for the normal life like we have for you we want people to love each other again to cherish each other which i do you know. what. we want to see going

to be like it used to be when the job was in march and i would you know the.

shake off life. football is a simple game football a simple game now not really was twenty two majors a ball for ninety minutes and that yes and mr magic i've talked about it want to get out there a lot of the teams going or how it's difficult to understand we will give you the answers at least try. to hurt us on d w if i just wish double a boy all.

this time to share the story of the first one of the lord told from different perspectives by future credo from the eastern european perspective from the african perspective from the perspective of turkey and the arab world. t w dot com slash w w n one. climate change. waste. pollution. isn't it time for. africa people and projects that are changing our environment for the better it's up to us to make a difference let's inspire other. we do it for the environment magazine. long d w.

this is day eight of newsnight from that germany's chancellor facing her critics in cabinets. started in friendly fashion three months off so i'm explosion of racists violence shook the city she's expected to face tough questioning from local residents at a public meeting also on the program. a funeral service for jamal khashoggi of each other most murders in the saudi consulate in istanbul even though his body is still missing.