we picked it up while parked in a refugee camp in northern iraq. the presenter invites people living under isil to phone in with every day problems. advises them on random matters such as where to get drinking water or about children's education. what i'm living to is an isil radio show that can broadcast scenario this area of northern iraq. it shows you the efforts that the organization is trying to make in terms of its propaganda and reaching out to people in this area. isil also uses video such as these to spread its message. this video is on the internet called "flames of war" it shows the beheading of journalists and aid workers to spread fear among the group. but spreading fear and using it as a weapon of war in the media is not exclusively an isil tool. al jazeera, northern iraq. >> the last president of the soviet union mikhail gorbachev has warned of a new threat. he spoke at the anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. >> there is enormous concern against the backdrop of the breakdown in dialogue among the major powers. the world is on

charles stratford northern iraq. >>> one of bahrain prominent activists is released from jail and detained last month after being accused of criticizing the government on social media and he just served a two-year sentence on separate charges of organizing protests in 2011. and the trial has been adjourned until january. we spoke to him shortly after he was released from custody and he says he has no regret. >> i've been jailed many times and attacked physically many times and this is a part of a series of attacks and intimidation from the government due to my human right work and due to my work with the peaceful protests and peaceful struggle for democracy and justice and human right in this part of the world, never regret this and this is a struggle and has to continue and this is a cost i have to pay and all my nation has to pay for democracy and social justice. and i was always in isolation and not allowed to be connected with other political president and i was among 4,000 political prisoners to be kept in isolation for the past year and now with this one month and unfortunately i was

also ahead - the battle for northern iraq. we are on the front line between you ared kish peshawar -- kurdish peshawar troops and i.s.i.l. >>> yemen government and houthi rebels form a deal >>> burkina faso's new leader - the african union and the u.s. condemn the military takeover. >> a bangladesh court sentenced another leader to death. he has been found guilty of fighters during the war in pakistan. ali was a senior member, and the leader was given a death sentence for similar crimes. we are joined by dhaka. who is mir quasem ali, and how significant is he. >> mir kaz 'em ali is a senior-most leader of jemaah islamic party. he was a leader and has been accused of forming a unit that collaborated with the army. he's been accused of killing freedom fighters during the war, and is the chief financier, owning a lot of businesses, is the director of an islamic bank, owns a tv channel that has been shut down. that context is instrumental. he was barely 12 years old during the war. but there's another evidence, in 12 counties - ma

many of now moved away and found refuge mostly in northern iraq. you are absolutely right there is a huge concern about the plight of the women. this is one of the reasons and in fact i have traveled was just into northern iraq we visited a number of refugee camps and she made a further commitment of additional funds. britain is one of the largest donors and if you have any figures we can provide in northern iraq to assist in this very area. >> but is there any information? i keep asking that question over and over again. what information do we as a british government have about those ucd women? they seem to have sort of disappeared. >> we will check on that you now but i don't think we have got very much. as the minister said the peshmerga themselves not just the ones who got them off mt. sinjar but then the evidences as one would expect they were the most affected people in tracing the 3000 or so does seem to have disappeared. we are not getting for what it's worth an urgent request for further assistance for the yazidis at the moment. without at

am have moved away and found refuge in northern iraq. you're right. there is a huge concern about the plight of the women. this is one of the reason -- i traveled with justin greening to northern iraq. we visited a number of refugee camps and she made a further promise of additional funds. britain is one of the largest donors. i don't know if we have any figures we can provide. in northern iraq to assist in this very area. >> is there any information on the women? i keep asking that question over and over again. what information do we, as the british government, have about those yazidi women? they seem to sort of disappeared without a trace. >> we will -- we'll check and let you know, but i don't think we have very much, to be honest. as the minister said, the peshmerga themselves, i mean, not just were the ones who got them off the -- off sinjar, but then the evidence is that they were, as one would expect, the most effected people and tracing the 3,000 or so who seem to have disappeared. we're not getting, for what it's worth, an urgent request for

i was just there a few weeks ago in northern iraq and among refugees in the neighboring countries. it's just so much worse than we've seen on television or anywhere else. it's just a really awful situation and christians are disproportionately affected among others. in northern iraq there are christians sleeping on the sidewalks in sleeping bags if they have them. most of them totally exposed to the elements because they left in the middle of the summer. but now winter is coming and these people are going to start to die. hundreds of thousands of them. so they would have survived the horror of isis to freeze to death in the winter. >> we want to talk about where these folks are ending up. these are just syrian refugees alone. turkey has gone more than a million. jord jordan, over 600,000. millions of people who are displeadi displac displaced. what can we do now? >> a lot of times we think in these refugee crises that the u.n. is going to take care of that or some other major government organization. the u.n. doesn't have the capacity to do it. in northern iraq they have had an inf

also coming up in the next 30 minutes: the battle for northern iraq. kurdish peshawar troops aim to take into account out fighters from a strategically important town. >> pallet boxes are ready in the west. >> a hero adds welcome. burkina faso's new leader and the u.s. military's condemnation. take over >>> a rival political block in yemen signed an agreement with the yemeni government. the deal was enacted by the opposition groups and the president's party. the president and the prime minister will led it. it's not clear how long the process will take the the u.n. special envoy helped to negotiate. >> all parties have come together. respecting laws in human rights and impartiality, and not contrary to the agreement. >> the editor-in-chief of the yemen newspaper says the agreement only means a change in form for the houthi rebels. >> the houthis are not going anywhere. in a deal signed a month and a half ago, it's signed. militants should be in the capital sanaa. millions will be changing clothes, rather than being militants. they'll wear the uniforms

we picked it up while parked in refugee camp in northern iraq. the presenter invites people living under isil to phone in with every day problems. he advises them on random matters such as where to get drinking water or about children's education. >> what i am listening to here is an isil radio show that is being broadcast across this area of northern iraq and it shows you the efforts that the organization is trying to make in terms of its propaganda and reaching out to people in this area. >> isil uses video such as these to pred its message. this video is part of a film posted on the internet called "flames of war." the video is showing the beheading of western journalists and aid workers has spread fear about the group. but it seems that harnessing that fear among people and using it as a weapon of war through the media is not exclusively an isil tool. charles stratford, al jazeera, northern iraq. >> the speaker of iran's parliament confirms his country helped the iraqi government defend itself from isil. he said iran helped iraq before any ot

as charles stratford reports from northern iraq, i.s.i.l. is not the only group using the media as a weapon of war. >> reporter: this programme is for the liberation of mosul from i.s.i.l., says the presenter. she is taking calls live on air from people suffering under i.s.i.l. control, inside the besieged city in northern iraq. she used to broadcast from mosul. the staff left when i.s.i.l. entered the city in june. the channel broadcasts from a villa. abdullah is the c.e.o., and says the mission is to spread the word na i.s.i.l. can -- that i.s.i.l. can be defeated. >> our aim as a channel is to show that i.s.i.l. doesn't represent anything to do with islam. we are the voice for the vulnerable. we are trying to lessen the fear of i.s.i.l., which propagated in the media. it's not just i.s.i.l. that uses propaganda to spread its message. this video was made recently. it shows anti-i.s.i.l. militia inside mosul, interrogating and shooting dead is captured fighter. >> translation: we are delivering the message of resistance, and showing that re

in northern iraq. they are defending the town of rabia, the syrian border is half a kilometer away. >> al jazeera is the first reporting on the front line. fighting is intense. defending the position is vital for the kurdish forces. rabia is strategically important because it's the main route for i.s.i.l. between syria and the city of mosul. the peshawar dug in. they built high defensive mud banks, and said i.s.i.l. forces usually attack at night. around 70,000 people used to live here, and they fled while the fighting started. peshawar vehicles are part of those among the abandoned homes. the peshawar in recent weeks retook the town of rabia. with that, i.s.i.l. has rechanged their strategy. they used to use trucks to ram front-line positions. peshawar now send groups of fighters on foot to infiltrate the camp at night. >> translation: they have tried to come in on foot. they thought they had deployed heavily here. they used grenades to repel them. they left many. the question now is whether the pesha

she life from irbill in northern iraq and thank you so much for being with us and this conflict has disrupted the education of thousands of children in iraq. what does this mean for future generations? >> thank you. glad to be here with you today. what this means for future generations is if children are deprived of their fundamental right for education and the progress in this area is interrupted, then there is a high chance, a high probability this will never be regained in iraq and other areas in the region will be facing an entire lost generation. it's imperative the united nations, the government and other humanitarian actors come together quickly to provide these educational opportunities before they are lost to prevent this type of spiral continuing on. >> now, jeffrey, we can appreciate that it's difficult to provide a normal life for these refugee children, much less a normal education, just explain to us the challenges of trying to educate children in refugee camps. >> well, it goes well beyond the refugee camps. we have referencely 220,000 from syria and more are coming b

al jazeera, northern iraq. >> jeffrey baits i bates is from the u.n. unicef. he said that children who do not attend school may never get their education back on track. >> we have existing schools that that are occupied need to be evacuated and refurbished. then we need curriculum in arabic language. then you face the challenge of teachers who are able to teach within that curriculum. we have classroom learning materials, school books, desks, chalk boards and activities. it is a massive challenge, and one that needs to be met quickly. it was supposed to start, and in many places it has been postponed until december. but in many places they will not be able to start on that date. children who are not able to go to school, participate in their testing, this is time that can could be lost and potentially never regained. >> a conservative party in bangladesh is calling for a strike on wednesday a day earlier than originally planned. the assistant secretary general of the islamic political party. he was sentenced for genocide during the independence war of 1971. >>

their lives. >> the refugees in northern iraq. this is no life, they say, living on the run, in constant fear, and tormented about lost wives, sisters, and daughters being held by islamic state extremists. qasim managed to pay the ransom for his wife and youngest daughter. it took a lot of money and involved great risk. and although he now has them back, he cannot be happy. two other daughters are still missing. >> i don't know where the terrorists took them. i know that their suffering is horrible, indescribable. today, i wish they had never been born. >> just how ghastly his daughter's fate may be can be seen in the islamic state propaganda videos like this one. jihadist talking about slave markets and serial rape. last week, is released an official pricelist for girls and young women. the bureaucracy of barbarism. in a city in kurdish iraq, we are introduced to seven young yesterday women. they tell us what they went through in three months of activity -- captivity in syria. somehow, they managed to get away. >> there were 130

captured this in june after advance across northern iraq. chinese president ping and japanese prime minister held their first face-to-face meeting since taking office two years ago and the meeting on the sidelines of the apec summit is seen as the first step of improving relations between the asian super powers and heavy shelling on the outskirts of the eastern city of donetsk and threatens a delicate two-month-old ceasefire between the government and separatist fighters, 4,000 people have died in the conflict in eastern ukraine. a memorial service will be held in the netherlands for an air disaster that touched the they nation for a plane that crashed in july and 298 passengers aboard flight mh 17 died, more than half of them were dutch. and simon mc-greger wood is live from amsterdam and no doubt a very somber day there. >> reporter: yes, absolutely, flags across this small nation flying at half mast on monday and less than an hour the ceremony will start, it's the first national memorial to try and commemorate the 196 dutch citizens who w

more than 500 girls in northern iraq are being held as slaves by islamic state. many are being treated as wives and others are repeatedly raped. very few have managed to escape and their stories are harrowing. there has been very little attention to this story. changean is trying to that by mounting a campaign for their release. she spoke to me earlier and i survey by asking her what exactly had happened to these women and girls. by asking her what exactly had happened to these women and girls. >> the girls are being sold to arab men as six slaves. also, these girls have been forced to convert to islam and have had to mary isis men or be raped and sold as sec slaves. >> -- as sexist slaves. -- you yourself have not met them, but i understand your brother has. >> yes, when my brother went to fight with the yeah zd force -- di force, he spoke to a girl who had escaped. it is horrible, the stories. they say they are being raped and they are ashamed to even talk about these things. and the horrible stories. the world is a little bit silent about these things. this sh

in northern iraq. they are defending rabia, the border is a kilometre away. the peshawar took control from i.s.i.l. last month. the fighting is intense. defending the position is vital for kurdish forces. >> translation: rabia is strategically important because it's the main route for i.s.i.l., between syria and i.s.i.l. >> reporter: the peshawar dug in, building high mud banks, saying i.s.i.l. forces usually attack at night. many peshawar were killed in the battle for rabia. 70,000 lived here. they fled when the fighting started. peshawar military vehicles are parked among the homes. the general tells me the i.s.i.l. forces are a kill some tor in that direction. the pesh -- kilometre in that direction. the peshawar retook the town. i.s.i.l. is changing its strategy. i.s.i.l. used trucks laden with explosives to ram checkpoints like this. peshawar here say na i.s.i.l. send groups of fighters on foot that try to infiltrate the camp at night. >> translation: they have tried to come in on foot. the day we retook zuma, they repelled. they came here. we repelled t

kurdish region are battling isil in iraq fighting to keep control of a strategic town in northern iraq half a kilometer from the syrian border, the main route isil uses to travel between syria and the iraqi city of mosul which it controls. >> a bahrain court has released a leader, he was on trial for remarks critical of the state. his trial has been adjourned until the 20th of january. >> i have been attacked physically many at that times. duer to my human rights work and due to my work with peaceful protesters for democracy and human rights in this part of the world. i was not announced innocent yet. i have been released on bail, one month and you don't put people in jail because of things they have said or because of things they have written. you know i have spent almost two years and one month just because of my tweet, just because of my statement i made or my things that i write on twitter and government attacking government targeting people for expression, this government not respect for human rights. >> there are reports of gunfire at the headquarters of the state's television --

charles stratford reports now from northern iraq. >>> this 16-year-old student stopped studying here. his school has become a place of refuge for families who have fled fighting from their country in neighboring syria. there are more than 400 schools like this in the northern iraqi kurdish region. >> i wish all these people could go "g" back to their homes. i feel terribly sorry for their families, but i miss school. i want to complete my studies so i can go to university. >> desks have been piled up in the central court yard to make space in the classrooms where families can sleep. internally displaced children who climb on them are not receiving an education either. >> cutting their education is like cutting them from life. the situation is very difficult. it is terrible that my children cannot go to school. this is part of our suffering. there are around 50 families staying in the school, and they came here around 3 months ago. the cruel irony here the only children getting any education in this part of northern iraq are actually staying in the camps. this is a camp where 30,000 sy

in iraq and northern iraq, and for kurdis stan, to do as well as possible and britain to participate in that. if there is a possibility of reducing the threats on the travel, we will engage in that. >> the question about regional government. i and i think others, they have made good progress on this. there is a possibility that there may be an independence referendum in kurdisstan, do you think that is possible? >> i think it is a lot of work to be done in other areas, i am aware, this is something that people have one approach. i think it is in the constitution as well, to be considered. i believe this is a difficult neighborhood. i believe, government believes, that iraq, the country is stronger by having the influence of the kurds in baghdad. the nation of iraq, the reality is, that the people of kurdistan would like to have independence, no doubt about that. is it not time for the uk to think about how in the long term, the region can be changed, the boundaries of the nations can be changed, and recreated to ensure there is more stability and that there is more ability to create

iraq 67 he shows me his school. the 16-year-old student stopped studying here two months ago. his school has become a place of refuge for families who have fled from the fighting in his country and neighboring syria. these people came here because there is little room for them to stay in the camps. there are more than 400 schools like this in the northern iraqi kurdish region. >> translator: i wish all of these people could go back to their homes. i feel terribly sorry for their families. but i miss school. i want to complete my studies so i can go to university. >> reporter: desks have been piled up in the central courtyard to make space in the classrooms where families can sleep. internally displaced children who climb on them aren't receiving an education either. >> translator: cutting their education salt lake cutting them from life the situation is very difficult. it is terrible from my children cannot go to school. this is part of our suffering. >> reporter: there are around 50 families staying in this school

forces swept across northern syria and northern and western iraq. capturing iraq's second-largest city, mosul in june. critics charged that turkey chose to overlook the black market, smuggled into turkey. by some estimates, black market oil supplies i.s.i.l. with as much as $2 million a day in revenue. now, if i.s.i.l. is smuggling oil over the border. maybe some turkish people benefit and it's not a threat to the security of turkey, of course. >> yes. it gives funds to the islamic state. turkey's view of the islamic state is slightly ambivalent in that they are determined to see the end of santa barbara. and they do not, in looking at syria see many players likely to achieve that help. >> one of turkey's complicated relationship is with the kurd, who have autonomy in northern iraq. turkey fought a three decade long insurgency in its own territory, which took the lives of 30,000 people. over the past few years, turkey forged a relationship, yielding 6.2 million barrels of oil, worth $600 million through a pipeline. the iraqi kurds, in turn, used the

forces swept across northern syria and northern and western iraq. capturing iraq's second-largest city, mosul in june. critics charged that turkey chose to overlook the black market, smuggled into turkey. by some estimates, black market oil supplies i.s.i.l. with as much as $2 million a day in revenue. now, if i.s.i.l. is smuggling oil over the border. maybe some turkish people benefit and it's not a threat to course. >> yes. it gives funds to the islamic state. turkey's view of the islamic state is slightly ambivalent in that they are determined to see the end of santa barbara. and they do not, in looking at syria see many players likely to achieve that help. >> one of turkey's complicated relationship is with the kurd, who have autonomy in northern iraq. turkey fought a three decade long insurgency in its own territory, which took the lives of 30,000 people. over the past few years, turkey forged a relationship, yielding 6.2 million barrels of oil, worth $600 million through a pipeline. the iraqi kurds, in turn, used the money to finance kurdish p

i just came back from irbil and look at the situation in northern iraq as well as in turkey. we're concerned about the poorest nature of that border and how it elicits shipments are still being handled both through turkey and parts of syria. so will be interested in hearing the comments on that. i want to say thank you for the work you have done so far. i think it's been commendable in terms of the work you have done. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida for one minute. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for holding this hearing. i want to thank our panelists for their testimony today. as you pointed out, it costs the terrorists who murdered thousands of zi citizens on 9/11 $500,000 to plan and execute their attack. in a single day, isil is estimated to bring in more than double that amount through elicit business practices. we must dismantle and destroy this terrorist organization before more american lives are put at risk. from selling oilg to taxing and extorting businesses to kidnapping, isil is a criminal organization with numerous resources that have

sencom new training south in northern, western and central iraq will help train 12 iraq brigades and more than a dozen coalition nations expressed their intent to send trainers and advisors to help build the capacity of iraqi forces. third, we will concentrate on broader security sector reform. to help transform iraqi forces in a more coherent and capable unified force. this includes prime minister abaddi initiative for units that i mentioned earlier. coalition partners playing an important role in these efforts by providing efforts and trainers to help generate iraqi brigades and together we are also providing more arms and equipment to iraqi security forces. this year the united states alone has shipped more than 685 million dollars in critical equipment and supplies to iraq. ranging from grenades and small arms to tank ammunition, helicopter rockets and fire missiles and hundreds of which will be arriving this month. u.s. and coalition partners together have delivered over 2.7 million pounds of supplies including 33 million rounds of ammunition, to persmerga forces alone. mr. chai

that came from northern iraq. is that technology available or is oil more or less fungible? >> your question is at the outer edges of my knowledge of oil. but i can tell you this mostly from my work on the iran sanctions, different oil has different properties. it is often possible to tell where oil comes from although i'm also told there are some similarities among fields. i can't tell you with great certainty we'll be able to do that but i believe so. >> we all want to go after isis. the policy issue is do we go after isis in a way that causes harm to the civilians under its control? as i said in my opening statement we didn't hesitate to bomb occupied europe. if a businessperson of good character and reputation in mosul wants to buy something from europe using the international banking system, a civilian item, do we try to stop that? >> well, congressman, it's -- we obviously would not try to stop a decent citizen in mosul -- >> well, we certainly did in europe, you can't say i want to occupy this area, let's buy food from argentina and ship it over, use the banking syste

. >>> bloodshed in northern iraq. five people killed. dozens more wounded in a car bombing outside a government building inn building in erbil. this as a video posted on an isis web site showing militants burning french passports. cnn is working to confirm the authenticity of the video. nick paton walsh has more from southern turkey. >> reporter: further adding to the fears in the western countries, there is a jihad problem coming home. french fighters speaking in their native languages, they talk openly about the need to come and fight inside syria and iraq. one saying they will not hesitate to cut off the head of anybody who does not support them, even if they are doing their shopping in their native homes. a bid to strike fear in their minds of those back in france, but the title of the video is what you are waiting for. a call to jihad. is this because recruitment numbers are slipping or momentum? we never really know. this may be a chilling side. this comes after another signing which isis were able to breach security of erbil. a to

flu. >> fighters with the islamic state of iraq in the lavant or isil in northern iraq defending the town where the syrian border is half a kilometer away. it is al jazeera is the first international news organization on this front line since the peshmerga took control from isil last month. the fighting has been intense. defending the position is vital for the kurdish forces. >> rabia is strategically important because it's the main route for isil which isil controls. >> the peshmerga dug in. they built banks. they say isil forces usually attack at night. many peshmerga were killed in the battle for erbil. around 70,000 people used to live here. they fled when the fighting started. peshmerga military vehicles are now parked among the abandoned homes. >> the general tolls us isil forces are over a kilometer in that direction. the peshmerga in recent weeks have retaken the strategic town of rabia. with that, they say isil are changing strategy. they have used trucks laden with ex plos ifsz around checkpoints like this. peshmerga here say isil now send groups of fighters on foot who try

many have moved away, found refuge in northern iraq. there is a huge concern about the plight of of the women. this is one of the reasons why, i travelled with justin greening to northern iraq, she made a further commitment of additional funds, britain, one of the largest dopors, i don't knlarge est donors, i don't chb if we have figures. >> i keep questions, what information do we as the british government have been those women? they seemed to have disappeared without a trace many of them. >> we will check and let you know. i don't think we have got very much to be honest. as the minister said, the not just the ones, who dropped them off, the but the evidence is that they were, as one would expect, the most effective people in tracing the 3,000 or so who seemed to have disappeared. we are not getting, for what it is worth, urgent requests for further assistant for the azeedys at the moment. without having to underplay what they have gone through, and the push back we are getting from kurdish and iraqi groups, don't just concentrate on

charles stratford, al jazeera, northern iraq. >> the speaker of iran's parlorpal con first his country helped the iraqi government defend itself from isil. he said iran helped iraq before any other country joined the fight. does is an honor to battle the terrorists. we do not need any propaganda for what we did there. our stanchion on this issue in the past was the same as it is today. i think there has been an awareness they have acted honestly. your honoring such action from iran's supreme leader. at least 20 people were killed by car bombs in iraq today. this is the 56 math here of a blast in baghdad. the other bomb went off in ramadi. officials say the bombing operations resemble previous bombings by isil. five soldiers were among those killed. no one has claimed responsibility. coming up on "al jazeera america," from revolution to an arkansasy, we will go inside libya's struggle for stability. also, dine with dignity, the suicide that has re-opened >>> yemen, the government and reynolds falling apart deepening the country's political crisis. tensions escalated when the united sanc

in the meantime let's move on to iraq where the army says that it has reached the center of the northern oil producing town of beijing and trying to break a siege of isil fighters of the biggest oil refinery and they captured beijing in june across northern iraq and we have this exclusive report. >> reporter: just a day ago isil was said to be firmly in control. today the graffiti tells the story. the flag used bety group has been covered in iraq cherokee security forced slogan as the army takes large parts of the town from isil fighters. the taking of beijing and the oil refinery was an early victory for isil as they swept through iraq in june and this victory is for the iraqi army and the swad fighting alongside them. >> translator: let all the young men join the armed forces if the army or the mobilization forces, let them come here and join arms with their brothers to defend the country and expel isil, if we don't act know they will sweep us so we have to give big support to youth to join the fight against isil in the province as it's considered the breaking point for isil's advance

isil captured bei. >> i during an advance across northern iraq. we have this exclusive report. >> just a day ago isil was said to be firmly in control. today the graffiti tells the story. the flag used by the group has been called by the iraqi security force slogan as the army takes large parts of beiji town. the taking of beiji was an early victory. the rapid deployment squad fighting along side. >> let all the young men join the armed forces. let them come here and join arms with their brothers to defend the country and expel isil. if we don't act now then isil will sweep us so we have to give big support to the youth to funny the fight against isil especially in the province. as it is considered the breaking point for isil's advance towards baghdad. >> fighting continues, though, for the rest of the town. very early on isil established beiji as a command and control center for all of the territory that it controlled inside iraq. but it wasn't just about military strategy. it was also about business acumen. from beiji they control the oil smuggl

the iraqis say they have retaken the northern town of baiji, home of iraq's largest oil refinery. for days, there have also been conflicting reports of whether the leader of isis has been wounded. here's elizabeth palmer. >> reporter: it has been more than 72 hours since abu bakr al- baghdadi was reported injured in an air strike, and still there are no hard facts to confirm or deny. but even if the isis leader was hurt or killed, isis would quickly find a successor in its battle-hardened senior ranks. there have now been 740 american air strikes in iraq and syria since early august, including at least one near mosul last friday that targeted a convoy of isis leaders, but no proof al- baghdadi was among them. the bombs have slowed the militants' speedy advance, and helped kurdish peshmerga soldiers in the north hold their ground. in the town of kobani, they even pushed isis back, but that was an exception. in spite of the u.s. military spending an average of $8.3 million a day on this operation, isis hasn't given up much, if any territory. it still controls a huge wedge, more than

they have been joined by the peshawar forces that came from northern iraq, through turkey, and are fully engaged in this battle, firing mortars throughout the day from the western side behind us on the eastern side. they have been reinforcing their positions with deliveries of more weapons coming in. added to that is the attacks from the air, from the u.s.-led coalition that has been targetting i.s.i.l. positions. until now there has been no news of a shift in territorial control. there has been fierce fighting. this is coming from our colleague in the town, who told us there has been fierce fighting on the main reed connecting kobane to the north. i.s.i.l. bombed the main hospital, reducing the building to rubble. despite this, and the intensity of the fighting, many are wondering how long it is taking for a town that is so small that has few left in if, that they are combatants, how it's taken so long for a town to be taken away from the control of i.s.i.l. what we understand is that there is an attempt to put a joint mechanism for all these three different sides who are combatting i.s

also ahead - the battle for northern iraq. we are on the front line between you ared kish peshawar -- kurdish peshawar troops and i.s.i.l. >>> yemen government and houthi rebels form a deal >>> burkina faso's new leader -

the iraqis say they have retaken the northern town of baji, home of iraq's largest oil refinery. for days, there has also been conflicting reports of whether the leader of isis has been wounded. >> reporter: it has been more than 72 hours since abur bak al-baghdadi was reported injured in an airstrike, and still there are no hard facts to confirm or deny. but even if the isis leader was hurt or killed, isis would quickly find a successor in its battle-hardened senior ranks. there have now been 740 american airstrikes in iraq and syria since early august, includinga at least one near mosul last friday's that ettarged a convoy of isis leader, but no proof abu bakr al-baghdadi was among them. the bombs have slowed the militants' speedy advance, and helped kurdish peshmerga soldiers in the north hold their ground in the town of kobani, they even pushed isis back, but that was an exception. in spite of the u.s. military spending an average of $8.3 million a day on this operation, isis hasn't given up much, if any territory. it still controls a huge wedge, more than 10,000 square miles

in northern iraq. defending the town of rabia, the syrian border half a kilometre away. al jazeera is the first international news organization on the front line, since the peshawar took control of i.s.i.l. the fighting has been intense. defending the position is vital for the kurdish forces. >> translation: rabia is important. it's the main route for i.s.i.l. for syria and i.s.i.l. the peshawar dug in. they have built higher defensive mud banks, saying that i.s.i.l. forces attack at night. many peshawar were killed in the battle for rabia. 70,000 used to live here, and they fled when the fighting started. peshawar military builders are parked among the abandoned homes. i.s.i.l. forces are over a kilometer in that direction. the peshawar have retaken the strategic town of rabia. with that, they say i.s.i.l. is changing strategy. i.s.i.l. used trucks laden with explosives to ram checkpoints like this. peshawar say i.s.i.l. sends groups of fighters on foot to infiltrate the group at night. >> they have tried to come in on foot. the day we retook assumar, they thought be de

they control much of northern iraq. >> we will be back after a very short break. stay with us. >> welcome back. mexican authorities have detained a former mayor and his wife who are accused of ordering the disappearance of 43 students back in september. >> jose luis abarca and his wife were arrested in mexico city city. they have been on the run for week, along with the local police chief. police are still looking for the missing students. the case has rocked the mexican political establishment and outraged people across the country. >> let's get the very latest on this developing story from sandra weiss, our correspondent in weblog, mexico. public prosecutors are questioning the former mayor and his wife. what do we know about the case and their involvement? and is there any news about the fate of those missing students? >> we know they were arrested in the early morning hours in mexico city. apparently it was neighbors to call the police for the reward of about 90,000 euros. both the mayor and his wife were awake. they were taken to the prosecutor's office and q

the iraqis say they have retaken the northern town of baji, home of iraq's largest oil refinery. for days, there has also been conflicting reports of whether the leader of isis has been wounded. >> reporter: it has been more than 72 hours since abu bakr al-baghdadi was reported injured in an airstrike, and still there are no hard facts to confirm or deny. but even if the isis leader was hurt or killed, isis would quickly find a successor in its battle-hardened senior ranks. there have now been 740 american airstrikes in iraq and syria since early august, includinga at least one near mosul last friday's that targeted a convoy of isis leader, but no proof abu bakr al-baghdadi was among them. the bombs have slowed the militants' speedy advance, and helped kurdish peshmerga soldiers in the north hold their ground. in the town of kobani, they even pushed isis back, but that was an exception. in spite of the u.s. military spending an average of $8.3 million a day on this operation, isis hasn't given up much, if any territory. it still controls a huge wedge, more than 10,000 square mile

. >> we've reported that now the kurdish peshmerga forces from northern iraq have crossed into the syrian town of kobane. they've joined the fight against isil. we can talk to our correspondent right on the border between turkey and syria. we know he that the fight against isil in kobane has begun with the reinforcements from the peshmerga. >> indeed, yes, we've just come back from the border itself, and what we've witnessed throughout the day is sporadic fighting. the latest development has been that the peshmerga forces who entered kobane early saturday, later on friday, have started engaging isil in battle. the way in which we saw that was through fixed rockets fired off the back of pickup trucks, fuselage type rockets being fired off the back of those pickup trucks. the amount of ammunition that came through, while significant, is the first of its kind coming from the iraq peshmerga forces, but not in huge quantities. we expect they will be used scarcely until they say what kind of results they yield. >> it's not the number of men he, is it? it's quite a small contingent that have joi

we have the perspective and impact of the war of isis on the kurdish people in northern iraq. thank you for joining us, mr. mansfield. your book is called "the miracle of the kurds." the situation is so complex that it could be or is it difficult for the united states to define and by extension chuck hagel to define as defense secretary. >> i wouldn't want to be chuck hagel being stuck between the president's commitment not to put boots on the ground and the challenges that are there. the problem of course is -- our foreign policy has largely been based on dealing with iraq as an entire unit but iraq is imploding. baghdad is imploding. to the north of the kurds and they have built this marvelous society. they have a viable force. it's a difficult situation to be in. >> to give people some background on how you were able to come and write this book and do research on the kurds, you live in nashville, tennessee part of the year and you spent a lot of time-- >> after the gulf war, the u.s. military began to relocate a lot of the kurds there. there are more kurds in nashville than

captured baiji during an advance across northern iraq >>> 90 of ballots have been counted. results show more than 80% of voters favour a split. as claudio lavanga reports, more than 2.75 million went to the polls, a strong show of support for a break away. >> depending independence on the day millions voted for it. on sunday night catalans in barcelona celebrated a symbolic, yet historic victory. throughout the day more than 2 million answered questions. do you want catalonia to be a state. do you want is to be independent. most voted yes to both. >> given the conditions in which we had to do this, it's a very impressive number. the stay in catalonia could have had a normal, good or very good result. and it was a dealt success. the vote was unofficial. the catalans hope this was a rehearsal for an independence referenda in the near future. >> translation: i'm 80 years old. i have been fighting for independence. i went see it. i don't care, my grandsons will. >> reporter: not everyone here flies the flag of independence. >> i consider myself catalan and spanish. the catalan

iraq. and for a brief moment. they gained control of the military base and a individual on the outskirts. but the kurdish peshmerga forces staged a counter attack. >> translator: the rockets fell inside our house so we ran away and left everything behind. >> reporter: al jazerra saw that fighting up close. as the peshmerga pushed isil back from key gas and oil facilities. >> translator: coalition war planes have carried out several air strikes on isil posts. we have also relied on the peshmerga and iraqi security force to his repel isil. >> reporter: kirkuk is just one facet of a much larger security challenge. violence is a daily reality across iraq. one that has the finance minister asking for nearly a quarter of next year's budget to be devoted to defense and for the military to be cleaned up. >> definitely we will recommend strongly that there should be some serious deep-rooted reforms. and the military security establish the to fight corruption, mismanagement, to make sure that they ge

. >>> more than 40 fighters from isil have been killed in french air strikes in northern iraq, the air operation took place south and west of the city of kirkuk. seven people have been killed in iraq's capital after a bomb exploded inside a mini bus, 10 others injured in an attack in sadder city, a shia neighborhood of baghdad. ♪ ♪ >>> still to come this half hour, protests in india as investigators say the alleged rape and murder of two young girls in may was actually suicide. and the cricketing world mourns of death of australian batsman philip hughes who died a few days after being hit by a ball. >>> again a reminders of the stop stories here in al jazerra. taliban fighters have launched a series of attacks targeting foreigners in afghanistan. at least eight people have been culled in kabul. pro vin shel shallow visuals say a coordinated effort is on at camp bastion. a reported bomb play has killed people in nigeria. killing 40 people. in lines linked by the group boca mboko haram. >>> a poke will not cut surprise. >>> the next can president enrico peÑa nieto has laid out a new

in northern iraq. hundreds of minority i can't sides remain stranded on the sinjar mountain after fleeing their homes in august when isil attacked the area. at the time many were executed for supporting an ancient faith. united nations called it attempted genocide. the president of iraq's semi autonomous region said his forces are trying to retake the mountain, having already taken back over two-thirds of sinjar. >>> staying in iraq. residents in anbar province have buried civilians who were killed in an air strike on saturday. the strike came as iraqi soldiers launch aid major operation to retake a section of the city of ramadi which isil has been trying to control for months. iraq's prime minister says more air support is needed to defeat the group. imran kahn has the latest. >> reporter: the after maths of u.s.-led air strikes targeting isil fighters in the central city of heat. buildings are destroyed and at least eight civilians have been killed, including women and children. three months of air s

we've had reports of him leading qods forces in the northern part of iraq. the sunni tribes saw a central baghdad government as being almost inextricably linked with the iranian government. you see the defense minister of iraq saying he will not put up with interference from the iranian forces. certainly iran has interest in what's going on in iraq, but to send forces into iraqi territory is not a good thing. >> there are iranian forces in iraq as we speak right now. i know the u.s. is not happy about that. thank you very much. >>> just ahead, new information from prosecutors about the release of that grand jury report of the michael brown shooting in ferguson, missouri. plus, multiple challenges facing president obama as he arrives in asia. we're live in his first stop in beijing. save your coffee from the artificial stuff. switch to truvia. great tasting, zero-calorie sweetness from the stevia leaf. when you think aarp, then you don't know "aarp." life reimagined gives you tools and support to get the career you'll love. find more real possibilities at aar

. >>> a new group has been formed to protect christians in northern iraq from attacks by isil, the armed men pa pedroia troll churches and shrine to his protect them from attacks. kurdish peshmerga forces grabbed control of the region from isil about a month ago. the regional government in ira iraq's curr dish north says it reached an agreement. according to the deal baghdad will release $500 million in exchange for 550,000-barrels of oil a day the kurds say they need it to pay for their military campaign against isil. >>> still to come here on the program. dividing families and disare yog lives, a look at the new borden stretch between afghanistan and fashion. >>> plus a look at a 90-year-old man facing fines and jail for feeding the homeless. stay with us. >> an all new airplane in a once in a generation achievement of human ingenuity. >> three years late... fleet grounding... fires on the airplane... >> they're short changing the engineering process... >> from engineering to the factory floor... al jazeera investigates broken dreams: the boing 787 only on al jazera america ♪nly on a

iraq. on thursday they held talks with the iraqi prime ministe prime mn bagdad. they agreed to have close security cooperation in the fight against isil. >>> some of the u.s. troops sent to train iraqi forces will be sent without waiting for funding from congress the first of the 1,500 extra soldiers will leave for iraq over the next few weeks, congress huh to agree to pay the $5.6 billion needed to fund the extra deployment. the extra troops were announced this moth, almost doubling the amount in ey iraq. >>> in mexico thousands have rallied against the disappearance and suspected killing of 43 students, it's focused anger against corruption and violence, rob reynolds has more from mexico city. >> reporter: demonstrators clashed with police in mexico city's central square thursday night. in a violent conclusion for what huh been a mostly peaceful protest. police closed ranks and pushed the crowd back, quickly clearing the square. a huge thong marched through the center of mexico city, the