saudi arabia goes on the offensive in yemen. >> we pray that god almighty will provide support for our soldiers and the brave soldiers of the coalition. >> taking the fight to the houthi rebels. on the run. yemen's president reportedly flees the country. how the conflict affects the u.s. fight against al qaeda in yemen. facing charges. a year after army sergeant bo bergdahl was freed from captivity in afghanistan he's

charged with desertion. cracks. >> we only share when we're scared. >> a top general says allied nations need to better share information or risk being ineffective against future threats. and child soldiers on the battlefield. >> sometimes for them to be in the army is safer than them to be out there in the civil population where they get victimized. >> tens of thousands given no choice but to take up arms. hear one man's incredible story of how he escaped. good evening and thank you for joining us on al jazeera america. i'm antonio mora. we begin with breaking news out of yemen. tonight saudi arabia says it and other gulf states have launched an offensive against shia houthi

rebels threatening to overrun yemen. earlier today the rebels attacked the southern port city of aden. [ gun shots ] >> they seized the airport and a military base. the country's embattled president already fled to aden has left the country. mike viqueria is monitoring all the developments from washington. mike, what do the saudis and other guferl governmentsother gulf governments hope to accomplish by this invasion? >> the saudi ambassador adel al jabir, says they will do what they can principally targeting army barracks associated with the former president of yemen

saleh. others are vowing cooperation with the saudi operation against the houthi reckless. we know president hadi recognized by the united states and saudi arabia as the legitimate leader of that country of yemen had fled sanaa just a couple of months ago in the face of a houthi onslaught. we understand houthi advances on that city has caused him to go into hiding. there are no ground is troops involved at this point. they had tried consultations and the employment approach but this was the last resort. >> we have tried to mediate the situation in yemen. we have put forth the gcc initiative and the -- worked on establishing the national dialogue in yemen in order to have a peaceful transition to a new yemen. the -- every attempt that was

undertaken by the yemenis was thwarted by the houthis who have rejected every agreement they have entered into. >> reporter: there is a statement out of yemen tonight from an individual who describes himself as part of the hieght houthi. olit bureau, essentially bring it on. air and naifl forces stand ready -- and naval forces and ground troops if that is required. antonio. >> you are talking about just air strikes but the saudis have amassed troops at the border as well. talking about consultation, the saudi can ambassador said he had consulted with the united states. >> reporter: right. >> how much do we know about u.s. involvement? >> we are waiting for confirmation from the national security council to say if they have any response to that. it is quite interesting, saudi

arabia flying alongside the united states in its battle against i.s.i.l. in targets in iraq and syria those are against a sunni led force and i.s.i.l. these forces, houthi force is seen as a proxy of iran. of course the rival if not to say the enemy of saudi arabia in the region, as they battle for supremacy. so a lot of people are looking at the larger regional geopolitics of this and are very concerned about it as well. on the other hand, you have to say there is no way shape or form that the united states is going to get militarily involved in yemen. of course there have been hundreds of drone strikes over the last couple of years accelerated by the obama administration but against al qaeda in the arabian peninsula something president obama has touted as a success something he has pursued in turning back that organization, the mirgs describes as lethal and -- mirgs

describes as leftie l and most consideration admiration as most the united states is going to stand by and wait and see how this turns out. this saudi led offensive we've just learned about hours ago. antonio. >> no wonder they're on edge. it's a very important geopolitical area. mike viqueria, thank you. capturing aden would be another houthi coup. the latest on the houthi advance. >> reporter: it shocked many people that houthis have advanced this far south. ta'izz yemen's third largest city, especially the locals. every day this week, they've taken a stand chanting for the rebels to leave. >> translator: we swear that we'll drive out all houthis from

ta'izz and teach them a lesson they'll never forget. >> reporter: houthi fighters applied with gun fire and tear gas. many were killed, many more injured. many of the shooters wore police uniforms. other reports say the internal security officers themselves, the ones meant to be keeping the peace, have joined the houthis. these forces are said to be loyal to yemen's long time ruler ali abdalla saleh out saleh ousted in the uprising and appear to be backing the houthis, people are no longer sure who they can trust. the houthi group has morphed from a small military unit into a larger force. in september it took over the capital sanaa.

president abd rabbu mansour hadi escaped to the south. and it's in the south that most of the fighting is taking place right now. this is the kmer area and the tribes here say they are protecting their region against the rebels. saudi arabia has since entered to protect their neighbors. not just the shia or their own community. some people in the south don't believe them and are not taking any chances. these volunteers are grouping in large numbers to take on the houthis, with guns, tanks and ammunition. emiku molu, al jazeera. >> now al jazeera's roxana saberi takes a look. >> when president abd rabbu

mansour hadi stepped down in january, it was a series of events set in motion by the arab spring. in early 2011 protesters, inspired by demonstrations in egypt and libya killed four body guards and badly injured saleh who was praying there. >> i have had more than one surgery, i have had about eight successful surgeries. they were for burns because of the attack. >> reporter: in november saleh stepped down paving the way for his deputy, hadi to take his place the following february. the turmoil allowed al qaeda in the arabian peninsula to strengthen its hold in the south. in the meantime, houthi rebels took hold in the north. they fought with troops in the

capital, leading hadi and his government to resign in protest. the next month hadi fled sanaa for aden in the south and withdrew his resignation. houthi rebels announced they they were seizing power and would replace hadi with a council. made a plea to the international community. >> yemen is collapsing before our eyes. we cannot stand by and watch. >> reporter: and the u.s. temporarily closed its embassy in yemen citing the risk that renewed violence would threaten the diplomatic community in sanaa. roxana saberi, al jazeera. >> yemeni analyst writes her blog yemeneri. , it's good to have you with us.

with the houthis overrunning the country, the president fleeing now saudi arabia gets involved with these air strikes. but is this too little too late to save the yemeni government that was allied with the united states? >> i think in my opinion any kind of action that's going to create more trouble on the ground, any kind of warfare any kind of attacks are not going to result in peace. the situation was already tense. in the north we had a houthi militia supported by the form he president saleh and in the south, the president hadi, president hadi was pushed out of aden, we don't know whether he's fled the country or not for sure but it's clear the houthis have captured aden the city he was in and now we see that saudi arabia has decided to intervene. it's important to note that while the houthi rebels are in

fact a militia are not an official authority and are also allied with former president salel, i think a attack is scaring people, it seems a little bit unnecessary and a little bit rushed. >> clearly the saudis are concerned and the other gulf states are concerned about iranian influence. >> absolutely. >> the saudis support hadi who is sunni. do you think this is a greater battle between saudi arabia and iran or mostly a domestic civil war in yemen? >> will federal let me just -- well first of all let me clarify, the houthis were in yemen far before the iranian-saudi proxy war. so when we tubing about the shia-sunni war we are talking about a zaedi conflict that has been manufactured and pushed into a bigger shia sunni mayor

narrative. showing support and backing a country up is definitely necessary and i understand the gcc countries feeding to see a stable yemen. but attacking the military bases at the time being whether they ar tacking the houthi military bases they are in fact attack whatever is left of yemen's national army bases. if they are successful destroying yemen army bases yemen would be left with no military and that is a really, really terrible scenario. >> what are the consequences? looking at it from united states perspective, what does this mean for the fight against al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which is supposed to be the most dangerous arm of al qaeda with no armed state what happens? >> the only people who are actually standing up to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula militarily right now were the houthis.

and so it seems that saudi arabia is attacking the only people who are able of combating militarily al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. on the ground again what i'm trying to explain is -- >> but had the houthis shown any inclination to fight al qaeda in the arabian peninsula? >> yes, they declared them their enemies and been engaging in warfare for a while. just a few days ago al qaeda targeted mosques in yemen they labeled yemeni mofngz, declaring the houthis as their enemies in yemen. so what we are seeing in yemen on the ground is the emergence of a sectarian conflict that wasn't necessarily there acting out in warfare between the houthi group versus al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. beside the sectarian conflict we had another conflict, houthi military, versus the powers of president hadi. of course the gcc has talked

several times about only backing president hadi and him being the only legitimate authority on the ground. having said that president hadi was pushed out. on the ground if president hadi is in fact not in yemen at the moment them fighting the houthi rebels means they destroy the houthi rebels but won't have on the ground representation, nobody on the ground in yemen. >> we go back to former president sallyh who was a strong man and dominated yemen for years? >> you don't have to go back to them there needs to be negotiations the problem with that kind of violence -- >> but would that be the consequence you see? >> it's clear it's becoming very personal. president saleh doesn't appear to be backing down. the same gcc who is opposed to the houthi presence and saleh presence in yemen were the same

that granted him immunity deal in 2011. the reason he was able to stay there was because of that immunity deal. it seems things have done a 180. my concern is for the yemeni people. again these are political players playing on the ground. the majority of the population is not part of that. >> i just want to ask you quickly i know your family is still in sanaa what are they telling you? >> well, this is exactly why i'm speaking there way. i'm very much aware that a lot of my friends and my family and a lot of people on the ground do not belong to the houthi party al qaeda in the arabian peninsula or any other faction for that matter. they are just standing back watching all of this happen. i think a lot of these attacks have created terror to our hearts and minds to yemenis on the ground. when i spoke to them they reported hearing gun fire in the middle of the night. it's 3:00 a.m. over there they woke up to sounds of strikes and it's very scary to be there on the ground.

i can imagine to sit back and hear clashes near you you never know whether it's going to hit you or not it's very terrifying and yemen has had a very bloody week this week. i think yemenis are waiting to see stability and the stop of bloodshed everywhere. >> it must be a frightening situation for them. thank you for bringing your perspective. >> thank you. >> still ahead new details about the crash of a german airliner in ra france. thousands of children across the globe fighting on battlefields. the reality of boys and girls being sent to war. and with aggression in mind, mind,ing a reality check.

>> one of the pilots of the germanwings plane that crashed in the alps may have been locked

out of the cockpit. the voice recorder indicates one of the pilots left the cockpit before the plane descended and couldn't get back in. still don't know why the plane went down. most of the passengers were french, german and spanish. almost a year after he was freed from taliban forces in afghanistan, sergeant bo bergdahl could face prison time. today the u.s. military charged him with desertion. jamie mcintire looks back at bergdahl's saga. >> after a lengthy investigation, the army is charging bergdahl with violation of army law and leaving his post putting his unit in danger. >> chargeing sergeant bo bergdahl formally charge

sergeant bergdahl under the uniform code of military justice. >> shirking duty, reduction to buck private forfeiture of all pay and benefits. second count article 99, misbehavior by endangering the safety of a unit or command same penalty except the maximum of life in prison instead of five years. bergdahl was just a private first class when he left his post in afghanistan's batika province in 2009. he was captured by the taliban and held by the hakani network under brutal conditions for five years. never leaving a soldier behind and flanked by bergdahl's parents, announced last may that bergdahl's release had been

secured. >> i called bob and janie bergdahl that after nearly five years in captivity their son bo is coming home. >> justification for sending five taliban fighters who were imprisoned in guantanamo for bergdahl's release. jamie mcintire, al jazeera. >> calling it crucial to stem the rise of i.s.i.l. which is also known as daesh. >> it is critical that the world understands the terrible threat that the daesh and its allied forces pose to the states of western and central asia. terrorist movement whose goal is to destabilize every state in the region are looking for new bases of operation. we're the front line. >> ghani also he says his country owes a profound debt to

the over 2200 troops killed in afghanistan. blast land close to the presidential palace but not clear if the building was the target. in iraq, the country's prime minister today confirmed he asked u.s. forces to help retake the at this time of tikrit from i.s.i.l. in his address haider al-abadi thanks the u.s. for its assistance had launched air strikes against i.s.i.l. targets mr. tikrit. until now the u.s. had had no role in the operation there. officers in the south have taken control of basra al sham. syrian military forces have been trying the reclaim territory along the border with jordan. in the north rebel fighters have teamed up in the city of

idlib. kim vanel reports. >> ot the outskirts of idlib rebel fighters take over checkpoints. joint forces to try and take over the city in syria's dmeft. activist video purports to show rebel fighters getting ready for battle. regime forces reportedly closed off the city, stopping residents from getting in or out while transferring command centers. taking idlib would be an important victory for rebel fighters allowing them to cut off vital government supply lines. to the east, in derazor government forces are targeting i.s.i.l.-controlled areas i.s.i.l. fighters control large portions of syria and iraq. after meeting with president bashar al-assad iraq's foreign

minister says more will be done. >> translator: there is cooperation, but we are looking forwards to having a high level of cooperation. what we have in common needs more coordination and we hope that this visit would be a first step towards more coordination. >> reporter: iraq, one of syria's main allies is also a key player for the u.s. in the fight against i.s.i.l. iraqi forces are working with the u.s. led coalition and its bombing campaign. while baghdad acts as a go between between washington and damascus back in thrib hospitals are overwhelmed with the -- back in idlib hospitals are overwhelmed with the influx.casualties. kim vanel, al jazeera. >> in light of recent russian military exercises the head of

nato in europe is warning that forces are not ready to respond to threats. >> conducting rehearsal exercises and this contrasts with the tactical training ongoing on alliance territory. >> phillip breedlove said allies only share intelligence when they're scared, making nato's job harder, reaction force to face potential aggression. >> the challenge with the exercises we see in russia now is that it fits into a broader picture of a more assertive russia. a russia which is responsible for aggressive actions in ukraine. >> last week russia launched another military exercise deploying 80,000 soldiers to its

eastern border. the sage is set in switzerland for make or break nuclear talks. can john kerry seal a deal in the final days of negotiations? and ukraine takes possession of a shipment of u.s. military vehicles.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm antonio mora. coming up in this half hour of international news two indian women finding a way to counter a culture of rape in their country and the result is getting a lot of buzz on social media. also will brazil be ready to host the summer olympics next year? a stunning admission. first a recap. saudi arabia and eighths lies have launched air strikes on the houthi rebels in yemen.

the day that the current president left the country. the houthis have gotten to the city of adan. we'll have more in a few minutes. according to a congressional review recommendations come from a report released today since 2004, the bureau has prevented potentially catastrophic attacks but it needs to get better at gathering intelligence. the report says budget cuts are in part to blame. a delay from italy's highest court on whether to uphold the conviction of american amanda knox. she and her italian boyfriend faced extended court battles over the murder of her former roommate. last year they were convicted again. that is under appeal.

secretary of state john kerry after a series of missed deadlines, could be one of their last opportunities to curb iran's nuclear program. james bays sent this report from lausanne switzerland. >> reporter: lausanne in switzerland, the place where u.s. and iran hopes will be a break through. this venerable resort town. john kerry put aside all of his other business and spent the weekend with his counterpart mohamed zarif. his opportunity to get a deal play be closing. mr. zarif.

analysts say the stairks are high. >> well, the domestic political pressure that both sides have been feeling have not receded in any way slaip or form. as they loom closer to that march 31st deadline the pressure only increases. you will see a sense of urgency that you haven't seen before. like a soccer or football match the craziest things have a propensity to happen as you approach the 90th minute. >> behind the doors of this opulent hotel talks have made some progress, building on months of negotiations. sanctions, iran wants them all lifted as soon as possible. but the current array of eu, u.s. and u.n. sanctions snap-back provisions a way for

sanctions to be reinstated if iran violates any part of the deal. france is known to be the most hawkish almost certainly because of this, israel's newly reelected prime minister, benjamin netanyahu sent a delegation to paris earlier this week. he's strongly opposed to the sort of deal currently under discussion. here in lausanne, they know that's a view also shared by republicans in congress. the arab gulf nations. and hard liners in tehran. before he left washington d.c john kerry in a speech addressed those opponents of the talks. >> anybody standing up in opposition to this has an obligation to stand up and put a viable realistic alternative on the table. and i have yet to see anybody do that. >> reporter: when secretary kerry and foreign minister zarif

meet again they will be well aware there is a coalition that all want to destroy the agreement they are working so hard to reach. james bays, al jazeera lausanne. >> meanwhile the u.s. delivered its first shipment of military vehicles ten humvees to petro poroshenko. poroshenko is cleaning house getting rid of corrupt individuals. police walked in on a cabinet meeting and cuffed the ministers. a regional governor was also fired for allegedly taking bribes. in neighbor belarus today it is freedom day ironic in a country known as area's last

dictatorship. rory challands reports that living if a dangerous neighborhood has weakened the opposition. elections in november. >> reporter: the young the idealistic the discontented and the hopeful belarus's government is not much different than it was in the 21 years of power, it's just shrunk. elections loom once more only a thousand or so attended this freedom day rally. >> there are not dozens of thousands of people attending. but knowing people are afraid of participating in protest actions, many people are working because time is removed. i think it's quite successful demonstration today. >> alexi pay be happy with the

turnout but with one of the worst currencies, you would expect the opposition to be making more ground. this analyst says it is as bad as he can remember for the movement and one of the main reasons is what's happening in ukraine. >> opposition is at a complete loss what happened in the last campaign. all previous campaigns basically saying if we don't get fair and free election we're going to call on the people to pour into the streets. now everyone understands that this scenario of calling on the people is impossible both that the people do not want to do that, because of what they associate with what happened in ukraine and also, because the opposition leaders are not wanting to get into that trouble. >> reporter: presenting a unified policy initiative to lukoshenko's resume, fractious array of opposition parties and

serl several years of government crack downs. also western leaders who once berated his authoritarian tendencies have toned down their criticism now that he's hosting vital peace negotiations between kiev and moscow. the crisis in ukraine has weakened the opposition movement in belarus by making the maidan demonstration unappealing and allowing him to convincingly promote security ahead of democracy and most people in this country think the elections at the end of the year are a forgone conclusion. rory challands minsk. >> peter, good to have you with us. you just heard rory challands say that elections are a forgone conclusion. blieg that people care more

about security, preserving the independence of belarus after seeing what happened in ukraine than they do about democracy and freedoms. >> there is a cause of democracy in belarus every since lukoshenko came to power in 1974. >> he has distanced himself of late. >> russia's economy has been sinking so he is trying to hedge his bets. he doesn't want to go down with the sinking ship that is russia's economy now. >> you would think this is a country that would be completely ripe for a strong opposition. it is more soviet than the russians. a state run economy an economy that's not very good. why do polls show that people don't consider throwing over the government of any significance? >> for 20 years he has been in

power, he has cleared the political field for himself with kgb machinery a lot of his political opponents had to go into exile. from belarus they have had to operate from poland, et cetera. >> there hasn't been anyone in opposition in parliament since the 1990s. from his own admission he admits he is an authoritarian. he's not shy about it. condoleezza rice says this is last dictatorship in asia. do you agree? >> using belarus as a polly polygon. >> becoming the peace maker between russia and ukraine have

happened in minsk are western leaders shying away from criticizing him? i know the u.s. does fund some ngos that are in opposition to him but are people shying away because he is taking a more middle peacemaker role? >> they are faced with this incredible situation in ukraine this is worst conflict in europe following the conflict in yugoslavia. a significant prestige problem for him president hollande and merkel are the first top leaders to have visited belarus for many, many years. this is a political coup for the president. >> do you see any hope for the opposition? >> i don't think that in this presidential election we will see anything much different. i think for foreseeable future we will see more of the same.

i think it's still moscow that calls the shots in belarus. >> for look for more prestige do you think there's going to be an improvement in the civil rights situation? >> there has been some of that already. he has had to release some political prisoners but his regime will remain the same. >> thank you for giving us this insight on belarus. some children who should be studying fear their future involves a gun not textbooks. just ahead the scourge of armies and militias forcibly recruiting children as soldiers. and with their powerful message two young women from india are quickly becoming celebrities with an important cause.

luke

>> we killed, we loot edinfrastructures which were useful to the population. >> in tonight's in context segment, at the united nations about the life of young soldiers. he says he was forced to fight a war he knew knowing about after being recruited at school at just 12 years old. congo is far from the only nation where young boys face forced combat. al jazeera's katherine soy visited a village on the front lines where kids are struggling just to live normal lives. >> this is home to 24,000 people including many children who haven't gone to school since fighting began. a little over a year ago. the children are also threatsenned with abduction. warring armies quowlts quowlt continuously

recruit child fighters. being abducted if he returns home. >> translator: we are afraid that if we go into town, even to school we might be recruited into the armies. >> reporter: united nations peace keepers escort about 150 students from the camp to town. teachers tell us the students need to be better prepared. >> what i observed, they are not ready for the examination because many of them are missing the answers. >> reporter: they give it their best anyway under strenuous conditions. just this year dozens of young mem are saidmen are said to have been abducted afraid to go back to their homes. unicef reported abductions, 89

teenage boys maybe more are said to have been taken by a militia group, we are not allowed to go there. >> return to their homes either for meals or short periods of time and in some cases even the sleep and they are then required to go back for military training during the day. >> army commanders say they are investigating but overall there have been successes in child protection militia group allied to the government released 600 children in the past two months, the united nations say there are still around 12,000 miners, allied militias. >> child soldiers in their ranks. sometimes for them to be in the army is safer than for them to be out there in the civil population. because they will get

victimized. >> if this student in malacal changed, fortunately that their future is about learning or not fighting in an army. katherine soy, al jazeera malakal in south sudan. >> ishmael, a child soldier in south sudan. i want to get to your story in a moment. but let's start with south sudan. thousands of soldiers, including a nine-year-old girl released earlier this week, and is the u.n. underestimating the magnitude by saying there's about 12,000 child soldiers in south sudan? >> i don't think they are necessarily underestimating. what you have to realize is the numbers, usually the estimate comes from access, you know? so you are going to give the numbers based on the places you

are able to go and where you are able to count information you are going to verify. so let's imagine the children who are killed before that, there are certainly militias who have not been cooperative in terms of allowing people to come in and begin demobilization, removing the children from the fighting. when you look at it, the scale is much larger than what is usually given. >> when you got caught up in the '90s in the sierra leone war which was brutal, certainly you had terrible experiences, what were the long term consequences, do most people get just terrible logicpsychological scars? >> yes, when you come from war i think as a child or as anybody particularly, you're left with the memories of that war. and you spend a long time in your life trying to learn how to live with them.

because frankly the from my own personal experience you cannot forget them. i tried. it is not possible. you are conditioned to behave a certain way. but over time what changes what i think most important thing is in addition to having a family stability, is having opportunity. when you have opportunity to rediscover what you can do with yourself with your intelligence with your only humanity then you're able -- your own humanity then you are able to replace those memories, to refocus some of the things you've learned during the war that may have seen horrible, to use them for yourself, for good, for yourself and for your community. for example, when you're child soldier, particularly in the war i was in and i am sure this generally applies to most places you're 13, you're 14, you are in charge of other kids who are 12, 13 11, hundreds of them and you're supposed to make them behave and follow command. that's the leadership skill. you know? for example how many 13-year-old

kids can make other kids baif behave without being on drugs or being traumatized. you focus that energy then you can thrive in whatever you choose to do. >> we've seen these horrors from boko haram and i.s.i.l. across the world. how difficult is it to escape? you were saved by unicef. >> so it depends where you are. there are different reasons why you will stay within the ranks. in my case, i didn't want to leave because i had nothing else to go to. i had lost everything. my entire family was killed by war. i survived by luck. there was nothing for me to go to. i didn't have anything. this army became my new family. i was only removed from it by luck the unicef came to the camp and negotiated my release. >> you came to the united

states, went to overland college. it's really a pleasure to have you with us, ishmael bea, thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> returning now to our top story. saudi arabia and other gulf nations launched an offensive against houthi rebels in yemen. mike viqueria has the story from washington. said guff nations had consulted with the u.s? >> reporter: that's right. in particular saudi arabia had consulted with the u.s. antonio, as you can imagine we are waiting for a response to that from the white house, from the national security council. we are expecting a response any minute now. our sister al jazeera arabic,

president hadi, recognized as the legitimate president of yemen, is now in hiding. some of the targets are a military terminal in the middle of sanaa three houthi military commanders killed, this is the situation we know now. as announced here in washington rather unusual from the ambassador to the united states from saudi arabia abel al jabir, listen to what he had to say just about three hours ago. >> this decision did not come lightly and this decision was thought out very deeply and we have consulted very closely and very intensely with many of our allies and partners around the world. and in particular, the united states. we have had very fruitful and very productive discussions with the u.s. and we are very pleased with the outcome of those discussion he. discussions. >> reporter: okay, antonio right on cue here is a statement

from the spokesman from the national concert council bernadette me. the united states coordinates closely with saudi arabia and our gcc partners on issue related to their security and shared interest. in support of gcc actions to defend against houthi violence president obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support of gcc. we are establishing a joint planning cell with saudi arabia to coordinate u.s. military and intelligence support and antonio if we have another minute i'll continue. at the same time the united states continues to closely monitor terrorist threats posed by al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and will continue to take action as necessary to disrupt continuing imminent threats to the united states and its citizens. antonio, that is a separate issue, al qaeda operating in a

different area than houthis. continuing, return to negotiations as part of the political dialogue. the international community has spoken clearly through the u.n. security council and another fora that the violent takeover of yemen is not acceptable. the united states is coordinating providing support logistic support to saudi arabia in these air strikes. limited to air strikes. saudi arabia says it has ten gulf countries in support of this effort that's make, we know that jeecht and egypt and other countries have volunteered to lend their support. while u.s. forces are not taking direct action we are establishing a joint planning cell with saudi arabia to coordinate u.s. military intelligence and support.

>> the gulf cooperation council yemen important because of its important place geographically at the southern tip of the arabian peninsula, mike viqueria, good to have you with us. we'll be right back.

>> two yungs indian women are using wrap -- young indian women are using wrap music. against their culture of rape. the bombabes as they are known. the video has gone viral. a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes in india. troubled waters could be ahead for some olympic athletes at next year's olympics in brazil. cleanup for the city's waterways will not be met.

conditions which will be upward. >> toxic runoff more than visible and in 500 days, it will be hosting olympic sailing events. >> we expect and trust that we will have quanabara bay ready for the world. and these waters will be ready for everybody. >> reporter: in the shopping center in rio items fished out by divers have been put on display to raise awareness of the environmental issues associated with the problem. the bay receives the majority of the city's raw sewage and as part of their bid officials promise to clean up 80% much it, the city admits this goal is no longer achievable. >> it's obvious that it is a

responsibility of all of us. we have missed the opportunity to clean up the bay. >> reporter: all the very, very us a are on time and on budget. >> 60% of our budget comes from the private sector. so we are using the ppp the public-private partnership to reduce the high cost of public money. so we are delivering the games with a huge legacy and saving public money. >> reporter: after the rush preparing for last year's fifa world cup in brazil, officials say they won't facing the same problems. tests will begin in july building to the opening ceremony on august 5 next year. everyone hoping it will be smooth sailing until then.

elise holman. al jazeera. >> this operation a short while ago. let's listen to what he had to say. >> the kingdom of saudi arabia launched military operations in yemen. the objective is to defend the legitimate government of president hadi from the takeover attempts by the houthi militias in yemen. the use of force is always the last resort and it is with great reluctance that we took the step along with our partners in the gcc countries as well as outside of the gcc countries. we have a coalition of over ten countries that will participate in these operations to prevent yemen from falling at the hands of the houthis. as i