aid starts to trickle in for those trapped by think war in yemen, as air strikes against the houthi rebels continue. ♪ i'm loren taylor this is al jazeera, live from london. also coming up charged with murder a white police officer is behind bars after shooting a black man in the back in south carolina. making new friends. the greece and russian presidents meet. i'm harry fawcett reporting

from the world's biggest piano factory in china, where they say there is still plenty of room for growth on a major stale. ♪ hello, a day after aid agencies warned of a catastrophic situation in southern yemen, supplies have started trickling in. iran's state media, says two iranian warships have been sent to the gulf of aden it says as part of an anti piracy operation. and 30 houthi rebels have been reported killed. suspected al-qaeda fighters stormed a border post killing two soldiers. and doctors without borders says a ship carrying 2.5 tons of supplies have docked in aden. hundreds of civilians have been

killed since the start of the fighting but [ loss of audio. ] >> -- >> reporter: have now entered a third week. but the so coalition hasn't been able to defeat the houthis since they took control of the country in a coup earlier this year. on the ground the fighters who support the current president, hadi engage in street-to-street battles. the fiercest fighting is taking place in aden a strong hold forked ady's supporters and his final safe haven before being forced to leave to saudi arabia. as with any war, civilians are suffering the most. it's difficult to get an dent figure but there are pictures of people injured and killed by the air strikes and the houthis. on the border crossing with

saudi arabia there are still people trying to escape. >> the situation is getting worse. that's why the company advice us to leave immediately. >> translator: i live in the center of sana'a close to several military bases. i had to flee there were several air strikes. it was terrifies. >> reporter: despite calls for aid to be allowed into yemen, very little has been able to enter the country. the fighting on the ground coupled with the consistent bombardment from the air means for now the one thing in constant supply is violence. let's get more from hashem ahelbarra in doha. we mentioned at the start of the program the presence of iranian warships heading to the area. how does that play into the crisis there? >> reporter: well this is definitely going to create more

tension in the region. the iranians say the two vessels are off of the coast of aden as part of an anti piracy campaign but the saudis have repeatedly said that the iranians have been providing the houthis with substantial military aid to destabilize the region so i think this move will be seen by the saudis as -- as an unwelcome move. >> and hashem there is at least some good news on the humanitarian front, a little bit of aid getting to the area? >> well it is starting to trickle in particularly in sana'a but according to many people in yemen this is not enough at all. they are expecting to see more. there are also plans to channel some of the aid to aden.

but then we two issues to tackle. you are talking about how are they going to be able to ship it to aden who is going to escort the ships or planes arriving there and establish security. we're talking about areas where you still have fighting flaring up particularly in the port city of aden doctors have been complaining about shortages of medical supplies people lining up for clean water. there's also fuel shortages. very, very dire situation in the country, and people are asking for continued massive international support to be able to cope with the humanitarian situation on the ground. >> okay. hashem ahelbarra thanks very much for the time being for that update there. iran's foreign minister is in pakistan. he said the two countries must work together to solve the crisis in yemen. is also expected to urge islamabad to reject saudi

request for military help. some pakistani politicians are also opposed to the country joining the campaign. we'll have more on the conflict in yemen a little later in the program when the saudi-lead coalition holds its daily briefing. we'll bring you that as soon as it starts. ♪ twin car bombs have killed at least 50 people in syrian's northern province of aleppo. activists have blamed isil for attacking fighters from a rebel group. an afghan soldier has opened fire on u.s. troops killing one of them and wounding at least two others. it took place in the province

shall governor's compound. the afghan soldier was shot dead. the u.s. state of south carolina a white police officer has been charged with murder after video emerged of him repeatedly shooting a black man as he ran away. it contradicted the officer's claim that the suspect walter scott has grabbed his taser. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: 33-year-old north charleston police officer is behind bars after this graphic video went viral. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: a witness captured the moments the officer shot and killed the 50-year-old in the back. scott a father of four, employed and engaged to be married is seen running away from the officer. the officer pulled scott over for a broken taillight. in his initial report he wrote scott had attacked him, stolen

his taser, and his life was in danger. >> what happened today doesn't happen all the time. what if there was no video? what if there was no witness or hero as i call them to come forward. >> thank you lord. >> then this wouldn't have happened. >> reporter: civil rights leaders are calling for calm while activists are planning to take to the streets to call attention to yet another police shooting that puts policing in the u.s. and race relations right back into the headlines. >> we have got 343 police officers in our department. this is a bad decision by one of those 343. and i think the lesson that we take out of this and hopefully the general public takes out of it is that when an incident occurred give us the appropriate time to investigate, find out exactly what happened and we will act accordingly.

>> reporter: north charleston is home to about 100,000 people nearly half are black. 18% of its police force is also black. the fbi and justice department have announced they are launching their own investigations into scott's shooting. the family is relieved that justice will be served. >> we can't get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning for that but through the process of justice has been served and i don't -- i don't think that all police officers are bad cops. but there are some bad ones out there. >> uh-huh. >> and i don't want to see anyone get shot down the way my brother got shot down. >> reporter: south carolina senator tim scott says the shooting was senseless, absolutely unless and avoidable. he is promising to watch the

case closely. the shooting is once again highlighted racial tensions in the u.s. the town of ferguson in missouri saw weeks of violent protests after a black teenager was shot dead by a white police officer last summer. on tuesday the city voted in two new black city council members. rob reynolds reports. >> reporter: rain and hail kept people away from the polls for part of the day, and turnout was light in the election. many voters like kathy glenn were hoping it would end months of turmoil. >> we have had our bad and seen our bad, and now it's time to change that for everyone and make this a community that we all want. >> reporter: it was the first local election since the killing of michael brown by a white ferguson policeman last august.

the shooting touched off racially charged unrest and left this city of 21,000 people scarred physically emotionally, and ready for change. >> i want to see new people with new faces, and see if we can't go forward from this point. >> reporter: there were three open seats in the election two were won by african american candidates giving the black community more representation than it has ever had before. now half of the council members are black. for decades white elected officials controlled the town even though two-thirds of residents are black. extremely low african american turnout was partly responsible. voters like eva miller say there's been a double standard. >> one set of rules for one race another set for another. and it should be straight down the line just one set of rules

for everyone. >> reporter: this is the spot where michael brown died on august 9th. now it's a shrine covered with flowered and stuffed toys. with new leadership the city hopes to put an admonish from long-time resident doris into action. >> get along, and love one another as neighbors. >> reporter: all here agree change will not come overnight, but tuesday's vote may one day be seen as a turning point. rob reynolds al jazeera, ferguson missouri. more to come on al jazeera, including -- >> i'm in poland where nervousness over the ukraine conflict has prompted a big increase in membership of paramilitary groups. ♪

>> translator: -- and really thankful the people who are in need in a lot of places. today the indian government has evacuated some of its citizens through two flights. coordination is still there with the other states and other countries. today also there is a message from the coalition command to the commanders of some yemeni units who contacted the legitimate government of yemen, and some of the yemeni officers who are affiliated to the

legitimate regime. some units are in marib, and the information is there around these units. we don't want now to announce the names of members, but we stress that there are vulnerable leaders who put the interest of yemen and individual people of yemen above their individual interest and declared they loyalty to the legitimate regime that's why the coalition command wants to stress this point, and support them and salute them and from here we reiterate and we urge again the other come manneders of the yemeni army organization who are in rebellion to be unified and to contain the colleagues who declare their affiliate to

the legitimate regime in the government and within the very near future things will be fine and those who think that this approach is not for the sake of their interest the coalition forces will deter them and prevent them from hitting the interests of the yemeni people. also another message from this place to the popular commits working in aden the news from the field in aden say that there is now a big number of the houthi militias and those who misunderstood have surrendered themselves to the popular commits inside the city of aden and we stress here that they are all the sons of the yemeni people and we stress that there is low and there is legitimate government and according to that law, these cases will be dealt

through. we hope and we ask the popular committees to keep the maximum safety procedures for those people because we stress -- and they know that these people despite what they have done are the sons of the yemeni people. we have law there, and we have legitimate government there. we have security committees there in yemen. they will adopt their necessary procedures for those who committed crimes and for those who have sort of misunderstanding about the situation about the safety of everyone is to be guaranteed by the popular committees. regarding the operations today, and regarding the mission of the aerial campaign the ongoing aerial campaign is -- is there,

and we stress that we have attacked so many weapons store there, and we have attacked ground-to-ground missiles. we have attacked some air defense missile, and we have stressed and concentrated on two points. we will tell you about them later today. the area of aden or the city of aden you have noticed that the media today we have all noticed the barbarian behavior of the houthis militias and the army element to our rebellion against the legitimate government there. we need to know and to stress that they are now under pressure. their actions are decreasing

but still are against the people of yemen, and against the citizens in the city of aden the city of aden who may not except for defending their cities that's why you have noticed in some of the [ inaudible ] by the news agencies that the fire houses the fire citizens they attack innocent people, they are now rockets in the area of aden and their actions are decreasing and the coalition forces are working hard to prevent any support to come outside of the city of aden and we need to make sure also that the provincial areas might be in danger but we are quite capable of the safety of the people and we ask the all mighty to help

us and to observe the citizens of the city of aden and to enable the popular committees to put an end to them or convince them to surrender. regarding the aerial campaign this is it quite clear now, we need also to know that it is important to attack the locations of the camps and breaks of the houthi militias and prevent any military support, and prevent them from moving or from having any support. the [ inaudible ] is also one of our targets and they are trying to reorganize the parties. that's why we hit them yesterday. we get one -- one seven [ inaudible ] is now attacking the city. but we hit that brigade and -- yesterday, and also today. at the same time we have

attacked the al-qaeda camp in taste, al-hansa camp in sana'a and the saudi area forces get information -- get information about the presence of some elements moving from the yemeni territories towards [ inaudible ], and they have been attacked once again today during the last few hours, and we are quite keen to prevent these units from being reorganized or from being able to support the houthis militias who are now in so many different areas in the yemeni territories. we have also attacked weapons and ammunitions, and the media will show that to you. the operations are going on

according to the timetable, and now the targets are quite determined. the military gatherings that are trying to support the militias also in aden. this is a radar location in aden. that is being hit by the coalition forces directly. this is a camp a military camp and we have hit this military camp as well. this is a command building in -- belonging to these militias in this area.

that's why we stress what we mentioned in the very beginning this is an ammunition store being hit, and you can see how big is explosion because of the ammunition inside this store. we stress that we hope and we still hope and we still wait the commanders of these units to go back to the legitimate government because we need not to destroy them or destroy these locations, we need them to be loyal to the legitimate government, and these leaders of these units have the right to accept or to disagree. this is a ground-to-ground missile, and we stress there's a big thing being done now in order to find these missiles

and to target these missiles. this is a military camp and munition store inside the mill stair camp al-hansa military camp, one of the camps in which they are trying to make their own plans, and we hit that camp also. this is an air defense site. and what comes to the ground operations the saudi ground forces are all over the borders, and they are doing their routine works, and they hit any gathering or any movement across

the northern borders of yemen, and this goes with also the coalition forces attacks on the [ inaudible ] and other camps. the maritime operations are ongoing, going continuously. we control and monitor the movements of the naval ships. we follow every movement in aden gulf and babel in general according to their missions and the plans of actions. and would like at the end of this briefing to stress that the coalition forces want to -- want the relief operations to continue. this is important, but we need to stress also that there is a difficulty to do this in a complete way on the ground the

popular committees are doing their job in this connection. they are doing a sort of coordination within the other relief agencies and the countries who wants to help because coordination is quite important, and the early coordination is the better for the sake of the evacuations and for the sake of the humanitarian support. now any questions if you want. good evening. [ inaudible ] from the news agency from turkey. you talk about the maritime ships and there is a big one 'em battlement at this particular time. this might be a target of the

coalition or it goes beyond the international waters. let me tell you my brother movement of ships in international water is free to everyone. the coalition forces have declared that the port and the territorial waters of yemen, the air space of yemenese is under the control of the coalition forces. until now no unnecessary action has been taken by these naval ships. and the coalition forces have the right to reply against any attempt to help the yemeni people and the air space of yemen -- the ports of yemen are under the control of the coalition forces.

[ inaudible ] from [ inaudible ]. there are some news about the control of al-qaeda. does the coalition have a plan for fighting al-qaeda in yemen? let me tell you brother as i said before al-qaeda is active in yemen before the decisive storm, and the yemeni government despite the lack of enough capabilities the yemeni government was trying to fight these al-qaeda and to protect the yemeni people. the yemeni government have put a big number of al-qaeda into the prisons, but we know the actions of the houthis -- >> you have been watching a news conference given by a spokesman for the coalition acting in yemen, briefing -- detailing some of the aerial campaign summing up the attacks they have made on houthi camps and they said to prevent military support

for the rebellion, also suggesting in some areas perhaps some units might be returning to the government -- rebel units of the army returning back to what they say is the legitimate government. let's bring in hashem ahelbarra. did i get that right, in some areas commanders have said they are going to turn back and support what they describe as the legitimate government; is that right? >> reporter: absolutely. this follows a call to top military commanders in yemen who are still affiliated with the forces of ali abdullah saleh. they want them to join the forces supporting hadi. the top commander of the military establishment abandoned saleh and the houthis