underwater. trying to do something his famous grandson could do. welcome to al jazerra america, i am stephanie sy. here with the stories we are following for you. u.s. troops killed in afghanistan. apparent victims of friendly fire. iraqi forces flee an assault on mosul, the country's second largest city. >> i am not afraid of death, i am afraid of being a slave. i am afraid of living under tyranny. >> an exclusive al jazerra interview with one of the las vegas shooters before they shot two police officers at point blank range. ♪

♪ tragic developments in afghanistan. just as u.s. and allied forces are beginning their draw down, five american troops were killed. it happened in a remoment area of southern afghanistan yesterday. where coalition and afghan troops were conducting a security operation ahead of this weekend's presidential run off eviction. our mike viqueira is live in washington what information has cam out so far. >> reporter: both afghanistan and the united states have a lot riding on the the election. the individual expected to sign the status of forces agreement. and as a result of that or perhaps because of that, a u.s. and international coalition forces have upped their patrols upping their security ahead of the election. what we know is that as you reported, this was likely friendly fire from what we understand and details are sketchy at this moment. air cover, allied air cover

hitting the wrong target. we have a statement from pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kerby from early this morning he says, quote: five american troops were killed yesterday during a security operation yesterday in southern afghanistan. investigators are looking in to the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause. our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen. so a sad day here. the first such incident in quite sometime. we have to say that as you report, the war is winding down. american fatalities from their peak of 500 in 2010 have dropped dramatically, just 29 so far this year including the five today. >> recently the president faced criticism for setting a withdrawal date. he basically said troops would be out by the end of his term. how could incidents like this one play out among critics of his policy? >> reporter: a lot plays in to that. you look at the bowe bergdahl situation and not necessary lit common argument that you hear that trade, the swap that the president made.

some believe it to be unbalanced [inaudible] he can quit wall inequitable. there are still 32,000 american troops still there. and the president has faced criticism. by not only setting a date certain and giving the taliban something to shoot for in terms of waiting out the americans. but sort of signaling that when he says it's a prisoner swap, as the case was with bergdahl. happened as a result at the end of wars commonly over the course of generations and centuries even, well, that sends a signal for everyone that the war is winding down. meanwhile, there are americans who are obviously still in harm's way. stephanie. >> mike viqueira reporting from washington, mike, thank you. and on on that topic on capitol hill, congress is holding its third closed door immediate on thmeeting on theprison swap. they are meeting with senior, defense, and intelligence officials at this hour. members of congress have expressed concern that the white

house went ahead with the prisoner swap without consulting congress. chuck hagel is due to testify tomorrow in the first public hearing on the matter. for the second time in two days, gunmen have launched an attack on pakistan's busiest airport. the pakistani taliban claiming responsibility again. no one was killed in this attack. armed men targeted a security compound in the city's airport, briefly disrupting flights. again, no one killed in the attack, but the gunfire comes less than 48 hours after an assault on the same airport that killed 36. al jazerra has this report from islambad. >> reporter: even though the local media was reporting a fresh attack on the airport, the security forces were quick to say that this was not an attack but a fighting incident in which unidentified gunmen opened fire on an airport security post. now, the security forces saying that the airport was now clear, a search operation was underway

in the area on the periphery of the airport. and that the airport was now safe. all flights have, indeed, resumed. in to karachi airport and the situation was now normal. we are learning more about jared and amanda miller the young couple of cuesed of killing two las vegas police officers as well as a bystander. police now say the millers were involved with white supremacists and have expressed anti-establishment views in the past. al jazerra has exclusive video that confirms those views. erica has more. >> reporter: las vegas authorities have not released an official motive for the shootings that left two police officers and a bystander dead but new videos of accused cop killer jared miller ma playoffer some insight. >> our rights are being violated by the federal government time and time again. >> reporter: flaunting anti-golf views they volunteered asthma litsch a member to his help clive en buns i the rifer that clashed over the government over

a forced roundup of his cattle on the land, while on the ranch miller explained his stance with al jazerra correspondent melissa chan. >> the views of the police have grown out of control with no repercussions. >> reporter: he was no stranger to police particular any in indiana where he had a criminal record. he posted videos to youtube under the name usa true patriot. he accounts when police arrested him in 2013. >> one of them came and stood right here in this hallway, by where i am standing now with an assault rifle. while another one illegally detained my wife. there in the living room, would not let her leave the house. police officers then came up my stairs here, without a warrant, by the way. >> reporter: miller's apparent anger turned to tears as he posted a message for his wife just before heading to jail. i just want you know that i love

you so much. and i hope that yo you will come visit knee jail. he never expressed remorse in this video even though he was convicted of a crime. a year later while on the bundy ranch of called out government as the real criminal. >> a lot of these cram knowledges that we have running around in our country they are really not criminals, all right, they just refused to follow their laws. you know what i am saying? so how are those people any different than the criminals in our government that refused to follow the laws that are set for them. on the day of the las vegas shooting. witnesses say they heard the millers yell this is a revolution before they opened fire. erica, al jazerra. egypt president al sisi has asked his interior to combat the countries section assault epidemic. this comes off a mob sexual assault in the country was caught on camera. egyptian police have arrested seven men who they believed attacked a woman during inauguration celebrations for el

sisi. as roxana saberi reports, shaky video of the assault has gone viral. >> reporter: this video posted on social media appears to show a woman naked with blood covering parts of her body. police struggle to escort her out of the square. as 10s of thousands of egyptians celebrate the inauguration of their new president. the video has created a stir. along with this clip posted on social media sites. it shows a correspondent for a private egyptian tv network reported from the square. she tells an ankle woman, we must also report that there are isolated cases of sexual harassment. as she speaks the anchor is heard loving saying so what, the people are having fun. the anger later wrote on her facebook page, i was commenting on people's joy, not the harass think. the network also apologize odd facebook. saying it expresses its solidarity with all the

organizations that challenged the sexual harassment phenomenon in egyptian society. bite numbers, sexual harassment is a phenomenon in egypt. >> i think many egyptians just don't want to accept that this is a very pervasive problem. and they think that it's an anomaly, unusual case. but in fact, the numbers are showing that it's becoming more and more prevalent. >> reporter: many incidents have taken place in the square. the site of rallies during the arab spring and today. >> you have women who are out on the streets publicly protesting, publicly participating in celebrations like this weekend when former field marshall sisi was elected. and so there is more opportunities for these meant to act on their frustrations, their rage, their pathologies. >> reporter: some men are joining women to fight sexual assaults. on volunteers roam the streets to stop sexual harass think. >> whatever happens in the saults.

it harms society as a whole it's not a woman thing. >> reporter: egypt made it punishable by up to five years in prison. but some activists say they are worried laws won't be in enforced. the trial for crew members a cases of abandoning the korean ferry begins. family members getting in to a scuffle with court officers. and protests in brazil may overshadowed the start of the world cup. up next, on al jazerra america. ♪ ♪

a new ruling has thrown libya's political future in to limbo. their supreme court declared the election of the prime minister as unconstitutional and ordered that he step down. he says he will respect the court's decision. stephanie decker has more from libya's capital tripoli. >> reporter: right now they are convening waiting for more members to arrive to see what the next step will be.

they could technically try to vote him in again. he needs 120 votes but the gmc is very divided and people will tell you it will be difficult for him to get that. probably more likely they will leave the caretaker prime minister in crouch. but it's up to them at this point. you have many militias here, most of them under the government payroll. but when something comes to the point they answer really only for themselves you have all former general who has launched attacks on terrorists specifically in the east. this is something that's been ongoing in a sort of random way he targets some of the bases occasionally. there hasn't been an all-out operation, i have to say the situation hasn't changed the reality on the ground there he hasn't made headway against these groups and then, of course, the separate militias that support the different groups here, politically clashing. but i have to say in the last few weeks it's been relatively quiet especially here in the

capital tripoli. in iraq, the prime minister is asking the parliament for declare a state of emergency after gunmen seized parts of the second largest city mosul. in the northern part of the province. government buildings have been taken over and hundreds of prisoners freed by gunmen believe to be part of the iraqi state. >> translator: first, the counsecouncil of ministers is oh alert and mobilizes all efforts to face up to the ex-testing exg challenges. second, it needs immediate and swift mesh tours preserve the national security and people. and this needs the prime minister and president's office to ask the parliament to shoulder its responsibilities and declare a state of emergency and general mobilization. >> we are following the latest developments from baghdad. first, parliament, have they made a decision declaring a state of emergency? and what would that mean?

>> reporter: well, the declaration of the state of emergency has to come from a vote of parliament to do that. they need to convene an emergency session, that emergency session will be con conveniented on thursday. so all eyes are now on thursday. it's eye by no means a given that they the prime minister will get this state of emergency, he's been criticized massively by various parts of the iraqi political system for not being tough enough on terrorists and this goes what he's saying now, he's saying if you give me the sweeping powers i can use all of the state security at my disposal to get rid of the fighters. and i can tell you it's already happening, he's put the army and iraqi security forces on maximum alert. and we have heard that f-16s have been used for the first time on mosul. those f-16s were sold by the iraqs to the united states part of the deal that he signed with the deal for the u.s. and they

have been used against targets in mosul. and that's happened natural last 15 minutes. there is a lot to play for him. he wants the state of emergency. but he's confident, he's asked for it, he thinks he will get did. >> now, immateria im r.a. n i ku have been reporting that they have been active. how did this take over in mosul happen? >> reporter: well, the distances are quite fast. but when you think the fight in iraq and syria, and they share this vast border you can see the fighters coming in over the border towards mosul and that's exactly what has happened. what's more important, what's kind of the surprise here to everybody, is this is a city of 2 million people. they had 1300 fighters. lightly armed. these people had ak47s, rpgs and open-topped vehicles yet

they were able come in and the iraqi army simply abandoned their security positions, they left. the prime minister's office was so furious at this in the last half hour they released a statement saying any deserters will be found and charged. so this has come as a massive surprise to both the iraqi state apparatus who were relying on their arm toy protection the cities to find faced with the fighters, they just simply disappeared. now it's a question of what happens next. and what happens next like i said it's the meeting to declare the state of emergency by parliament. what's happening it's up to the prime minister who has then all the power concentrated in his hands do something about the fighters. and it's not just in mosul they have done this. over last week alone, they have taken over neighborhoo neighbord taken people hostage at a university. they seem tour resurgent. reporting from baghdad. thank you.

kiev says it has reached a mutual understanding with moscow on a plan fro posed by the new president to end the violence in ukraine. there has been no comment from russia. but ukraine confirms that two days of talks have given momentum to an emerging piece process. poroshenko also announced a corridor for safe passage for eastern regions with the pro-russian insurgency is occurring. the trial for the officer-y that sanction two months ago. many of the families called the defenders murderers as they were led in to the courtroom. the trial will focus how the captain and crew escaped while hundreds of passengers remained trapped inside. more than 290 people, many of them students, died when the ferry sank. if convicted the captain and crew members would face the death penalty. two days before the most watched sports events is set to begin in brazil the army is

ramping up security. brazilian soldiers simulated an explosion of a radio active device at the stadium as a drill ahead of the fifa cup to practice coordination between the military and police special units, transit workers have put their strike on hold, but gabriel elizondo reports workers could still disrupt the opening macha thursday. >> reporter: no agreement but the strike is suspended at least for a day. that was a surprise decision by metro union members after nearly four hours of closed-door talks with the government broke down with no agreement. they nevertheless said they'll go back to work for now, and meet again on wednesday, one day before the world cup kickoff in the city to decide their next course of action. the day started ominous enough. several hundred mostly youth protesters held a dawn prezest. police locking the doors of the gates of the station to prevent

a revolt. riot police broke up the crowd. 60 workers were protesting. the union wants them all to get their jobs back before they say they will permanently end the strike. it's been a sticking point in negotiations. >> translator: we may have been talking to the government for more than two months, but they have not been negotiating with us. and now they are criminalizing our movement. >> reporter: every day more protests a as more than 1,000 activists from a homeless workers movement marched in the center to show support in the metro workers. the local officials are confident if the metro workers decide to strike again, it won't threaten the world cup games in the city. >> translator: the federal. state and city government is ready to offer a big event that will go on as planned. for any issue that can come up we have a contingency plan.

not just for the metro. >> reporter: the metro work are strikes seems to have been the catalyst for all the new protests here in sao paulo. the big question now is this the beginning of the end of these protests or will they continue through the world cup? for now, it's over, but the threat of another strike still looming. gabriel elizondo, al jazerra, sao paulo. coming up, 75 years later revisiting the grapes of wrath. we'll take you to the grounds in california that inspired the iconic novel. and find out why over a thousand paper pandas invaded hong kong's international airport. stay with al jazerra america.

welcome back to al jazerra america. i am stephanie sy. here are today's headlines at this hour. five american nato troops were killed in southern afghanistan in what may have been friendly fire. the incidents happened yesterday during security operations which have been increased ahead of

afghanistan's elections this weekend. iraqi prime minister is urging parliament to declare a state of emergency after fighters from the islamic state of iraq took over parts of mosul. gunmen seized government buildings and freed several hundred prisoners. senior defense spin tell generals officials are meeting this morning with a senate commit any a closed-door session to discuss the white houses handling the army sergeant bowe bergdahl's release, dick durban says the obama administration only finalized the release in exchange for five taliban detainees a day before the june swap. >> it's been 75 years since the pub lake of the grapes of wrath. about the struggles of a depression-era family and the grueling working conditions of farm workers, melissa chan takes a closer look of what has changed and what hasn't in steinbach's california. >> reporter: in the morning glow

the sun came up behind them. the vin yards, the orchards, the great flat valley, green and beautiful. so wrote john steinbach in his naval the grapes of wrath on california. the promised land. >> oklahoma is where we come from. and it was because we were starving to death. we were hungry. we weren't starving but we were hungry. >> reporter: they arrived poor and desperate and lived in camps established by the government. and it was here that he called weed patch, that steinbach placed his famous fictional joe family. w.c.'s stance came in 1944 and lived here for 16 years. >> so this is my brother here and my dad and my oldest brother. >> reporter: a well digger, the dust storms drove his father out of business. the family joined the great migration west and found work in the fields. after school was out, we would work whatever was in season, you know, my mother was great with

her hands, real quick and would pack, she was packing peaches, grapes, plumbs, and she cut potatoes, seed potatoes, they don't do that anymore. >> reporter: california's called these newcomers oakies in contempt. they came from texas, arkansas and missouri. steinbach's novel highlighted their plate, exploitation and tough journey. this is the kind of vehicle that american migrants in the 1930s and '40s would drive to california. back then, families were bigger and sometimes as many as eight or 10 people would be hanging on even sitting on top of the roof of the car. today migrants still come from the south, and mostly from mexico. 75 years after his novel, the camp that inspired steinbach still stands. instead of the joes, others have come to take the place of oakies. they say camp life is simple,

but good. though some things have not changed. farm work remains tough. abuse continues with laborers making minimum wage or less. >> translator: the most difficult job is working on your knees. when you are working with the grapes on your knees the ground, the humidity and everything else. >> reporter: the central valley remains one of the poorest parts of the country. though many ee oakies have moved onto a better life beyond the camp gates. their story, as told by steinbach, now read by millions of students. one of the major works of american literature. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the new my grass also come with their california dream. one generations before them have pursued. in a story that will continue. melissa chan, al jazerra, kearn county, california. ♪

♪ >> meteorologist: i am meet rolls dave warren, the weather story out west is the drought that continues. rain here plus the clouds over nevada. but not much in the way of steffi rainfall that would alleviate the dry conditions there. that's about all the rain that we could squeeze out. farther north still a problem with fire weather now because now there are a few piers fires popping up and very little rain from the west coast. temperatures continuing to climb, close to 100 degrees in california. above average temperatures, very dry weather and the wind is starting to pick up is lead to go this, these fire weather watches issued and the red flag warnings for the dry conditions along with the fires developing. this is smoke in oregon right around big bend here that haze is the smoke from the fire. snow still in some of the mountains, good to see the snow still there. that will eventually melt and provide some moisture, but certainly not a lot.

the snow and storms have been below average this year so the drought will continue. too much rain in the southeast. not real severe storm warnings in effect, but flash flood watches and warnings as the area of rain coming out of texas and oklahoma continues to spread east, a large area expecting flash flooding today as the rain pushes east. temperatures in the area will climb to the mid to low 80s and stay steady right about there. but the heat continues to build out west and the warmer weathers across the southeast, cooler temperatures and nice comfortable conditions coming down from the north, highs around might 60s in minute' laws and chicago. stephanie. thank you, dave. an army of pandas popping up in places you would never expect. not real ones, these once, 1,600 paper machae bears greeted travels in the arrival hall in the hong kong airport it didn't stop there. they will descend on the city's landmarks in an effort to promote the conservation of the endangered piece us, the installation by a french

sculpture mirrors the small number of pandas in the wild and hopes to raise awareness of their shrinking numbers. thank to watching america i am stephanie sj. "inside story" is next. for updates all day head to aljazerra.com. >> in the name of social mobility economic development in the name of social mobility. economic development and as the president sees it, plain old fairness, the white house is riding to the rescue of some students worried about adult lives burdened by student debt. it's the "inside story." ♪ ♪ hello i am ray suarez. we are just coming to the