america's war workers only on al jazeera america isil takes more territory in syria, destroying symbols. assad government along the way. ♪ ♪ welcome to al jazerra, i am jane dutton live from our doha headquarters. also ahead diplomats discuss the migrant crisis in southeast asia while the malaysian navy searches for those stranded at sea. even u. leaders talk about greece's debt as the dead loom looms for yet another payment from athens. and protests against the chilean government turn violent. ♪

♪ spiteers from the islamic state of iraq and the levant are continue to go make advances in their military campaign in syria. the u.k.-based syrian observatory for human rights says isil now controls half of the country. the goop a trying to control the area between the western city of ho ms and anbar in iraq. meanwhile, isil have imposed a curfew in the ancient city of palmyra which they are in full control of. there is a dire humanitarian crisis there as the city has been without electricity and water there for 10 days. as emma hayward reports. >> reporter: everyone in this pumping station appears to have fled knowing that isil has building edging closer day by day. but with their own camera rolling, isil fighters are relent little.

relentless in the destruction of any signs of the syrian rah regime, past or presents. palma try was inpalmyra is is in the hands of the fighters. in the same video local people are shown to support one fighter. it's unclear whether that support is genuine. isil has used fear and terror to control before. the fall of palmyra has caused alarm and fear for the thousands of people who are thought to be trapped inside. many had come here seeking sanctuary from other parts of syria. and isil has struck at the heart of syria's ancient past with its ruins now under threat. >> we may have different beliefs, we may have different views, but we have to protect such an incredible vestiges of human history.

i would appeal indeed that destroying heritage will not achieve anything. >> reporter: but isil appears to be intents in trying to ahead vans further. and with no clear strategy to strike back, the group's momentum has taken many by surprise. there will be much soul searching in syria and beyond about how to stop the group from taking more territory. emma heywood, al jazerra. sources in iraq say ice sill now in full control of some areas east of the city of ramadi and now the group is said to be advances towards a military base. the territory gains have prompted calls within the united states for washington to rethink its strategy against the group. alan fisher reports. >> reporter: what happened in ramadi shock theded the white house. a day before isil took ramadi

u.s. forces killed a isil leader. but former republican presidential candidate john mccain a senior senator says the loss of rah mad is a a significant defeat. >> the owe obama administration seems unwilling or unable to grasp the extra strategic significance as isil terrorists ran sacks ramadi by the way the pentagon's news page ran a story with the headline, quote strategy to defeat isil is working. >> reporter: the state department insists things are improving. >> in a conflict like this, you have ebbs and flows on the battlefield and what matters mallly is if we can get back on track. get the iraqi back on track and help them retake rah made. >> reporter: you are not degrading to the extent where they can't launch major offensive to retake an important strategic city. >> this is a process to degrade them. we have degraded their abilities, cut off their main source of funding that's having an impacts.

we are taking fighters off the battlefield every single day. >> reporter: the whites hossa mounded its rushing 1,000 anti--tank missiles to help iraqi security forces. president obama admitted the loss of ramadi was a tactical setback but add nod doubt in the soon i areas we'll have to ramp up not just training, but also commitment. and we getter get sunni tribes more activated than they currently have been. and senior u.s. military officers back from training iraqi security forces say they see improvements, even if recent military gains in tikrit seem to be setting the barlow. >> i know that no one ran away. right? no one ran way. not that i know. and people fought that's a big difference from what it was before. >> reporter: the white house insists it's keeping its strategy constantly under review. after ramadi it will be asking what went wrong and how do they fix it. alan fisher, al jazerra

washington. joining us via describe is victoria, she's the chair of the politics and public policy department at the american university good to have you on the show victoria. the what is isil's military campaign objectives at the moment? >> well, their objective is very clear it's to to extend the caliphate as much as possible throughout iraq and syria. and to extend it as much as possible in terms of fighting and continuous attacks. >> and they seem to be doing that quite successfully at the moment. am i right in saying that they are leading the way and when it comes to the u.s. the iraqis and in syria that they are responding in a more reactive fashion? >> they always reactive. and the advances are continuing from what i know, the military base is now being surrounded. there is heavy fighting in and around the base.

the iraqi police have started fleeing the base. last night through the tunnel that exists between the base and the air base and so it's really looking like there might be another setback as we are speaking. >> what sort of support can the iraqi troops expect from tribes in romadi considering what happened in tikrit when there were revenge killings when they managed to push isil out? >> that's the problem. the tribes that want to fight with the iraqi government are already fighting with the government. others are likely to join because -- are unlikely to join because they saw what happened after the tikrit offensive. it's very unlikely there will be more sign i tribal support at this stage. >> the more successful isil becomes, is it making it easier for them to attract fighters to join them? >> of course it is. it's galvanizing their morale. especially sometimes they also feel that god is helping them in

the offenses, the sand storm that actually presented -- prevented u.s. air strikes from actually let's say defeating them is a sign to them that god is helping them so with these victories and god on their side they feel invincible. >> what do you think will put a stop to it? should it be boots on the ground? >> i think it's a combination of many different responses. yes, of course boots on the ground would helpful but it's very unlikely that president obama will do that. i guess that engaging sunni tribes, not just by making them empty promises like. [ inaudible ] initiative in 2006, 2007. but actually maybe proposal an all tonight my to sunni provinces in iraq, that might helpful because rights now sunni tribes do not wants to help the government keep its sectarian power through military let's say

assistance. >> thank you for sharing your experience with us victoria. >> thank you. the deteriorating humanitarian situation in south sudan is the focus of a press conference being held right now by doctors without borders. it's briefing in the capital of kenya in nairobi let's hear what is being said. >> next to johanna is pete, who is the deputy director of operations he first started to work in the humanitarian sector in 1994. during the genocide. and he joined later msf in 1997. several postings include somalia, sudan afghanistan haiti, among others. and he's currently the deputy director of operations for msf based in amsterdam.

this press briefing wail focus three states in south sudan. where the conflict has taken a particularly death toll on the population. and these three states are. [ inaudible ] and i am now the going to leave the floor to paul christy the head. >> thank you very much. over the last few weeks, we have seen an escalation in conflicts in the three states. the humanitarian -- we are very concerned the about the humanitarian effects on the civilian population. in the states we have seen an escalating and continued use of violence against civilians. medical care and essential humanitarian care has been reduced, hospital have been

closed. medical staff have been evacuated. throughout this violence we see more people moving to the protection of civilian sites wherein creased numbers in the sites the tensions within the sites and the approaching wet season are all extremely concerning. on the 27th of april my teams reported conflict to the south of the town. i hired a medical team in the town to the south who reported to me then that they could hear explosions in the distance and they felt comfortable i made the decision to evacuate that team. by the time the plane arrived artillery was landing within a kilometer of the airstrip. the subsequently we started receiving civilians and seeing civilians inside the protection

of civilian sites from this fighting. they reported horrific instance of attacks on well, attacks on children villages being burned. over the few days following the fighting, we saw two and a half thousand pima rife. mostly women and children. it had taken them up to five days to reach the protection of the protection of civilian sites sites. one lady, a pregnant laid a received after nine days, she had been injured with artillery. her brother had lost two fingers in the same attack. report told us of other injured civilians being left behind in the bush. we know that 10s of thousands of people were displaced. they have no access to healthcare. we do not know where they are. on the 9th of may we made the decision to evacuate our team from the hospital that we have to the south.

in march our team there treated over 6,000 patients, we are looking after 1,100 children for mallmalnutrition. our national staff tried to continue supporting the patience as best they could without international medical teams there with doctors and nurses and the midwifes. on the 15th of may, we were told the lady who received in the hospital who needed a cesarean section to save her life and possibly the life of her child. we could not fly in on the 15th. on the 16th. we tried to fly in, but just before we were due to depart with the surgeon to try to save this lady's life our staff told us that the fight was approaching and they did not feel that it was safe for us to fly in to the city.

the staff then informed us at 12:30 on saturday of 16th, that they were leaving the town. they felt too insecure to stay in the town. and that they were running for the bush and that they would be taking nine patients with them to try to look after the patients in the bush. three of those patients were premature children. the pregnant lady at her request was being taken back to her family. three of our staff took satellite telephones with them. and we made the arrangement that we would not call them, but they would call us with updates. because we did not want ringing telephones to potentially compromise them. we have since lost contact with one of those staff members. a few days ago, one of my colleagues reported that he was on an island with a large number of civilians when men with guns

came on to the island and started shooting at the civilians. they ran in to the water and as he was running in to the water a rock i had propelled grenade round landed in in to the water next to him. he spent nine hours in the water before he felt safe to go back to dry land, as he was going back to dry land he recovered the bodies of two small children who had been killed. he gave those children back to their parents. one lady that was on the island was abducted and her child her baby is now being looked after by other people. we are very concerned about the situation. >> this is a taste of just some of the hor are horrors faceed by people leigh living in three states in south sudan as put out in the press conference in nairobi by doctors without borders, this is the because of the fighting

between the government troops and rebels trying trying to take over power in south sudan as a result of this fighting many aid groups have pulled out of the country. lots more coming up on al jazerra. they came on power in a promise to end mass unemployment. but has greece's new government made any progress? we'll report from athens. and the once pristine sands of this california beach have now been soaked with oil after a massive spill. that goes where nobody else goes... >> my name is imran garda i am the host of third rail and you can find it on

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here is a reminder of our top stories. isil are making more advances and taking more territory across syria. the group is trying to get control of the area between the western city of homs and syria and el anbar province in iraq. the u.s. government is coming under criticism for its strategy to defeat isil in iraq. it follows the fall of ramadi to isil forces in anbar province. the white house has announced it's rushing anti-tank missiles to help iraqi security forces. a top u.s. diplomat has been meeting with government representatives in myanmar to address the growing refugees crisis in southeast asia. deputy secretary of state anthony is due give a news conference later on friday after talking to officials in the capital, he said the only solution to the refugees problem was to address the conditions causing people to seek asylum. boats full of rohingya muslim refugees have either been

rescued or stranded at sea after fleeing persecution in myanmar. malaysia is where many of the rohingya refugees are headed. rob mcbride has more from the island. >> reporter: that search and rescue phase has been ramped up in malaysia with the chief of the may have any this part of the coastline saying four ships and three helicopters have pow been assigned to the task of looking for migrant boats and several other vessels on stand by only when they start to make contact with the vessels that are thought to be out there will we get a real sense of just how many migrants there are likely to be wants to be come ashore. meanwhile, there has been an important breakthrough in the diplomatic side of dealing with this problem. and that's the agreement of myanmar to take part in emergency talks next week on this crisis. there was a meeting yesterday between the malaysian and indonesian an foreign ministers with senior officials in myanmar, we don't know what was said behind closed doors.

but we can expect that the talk was probably very frank and forthright telling myanmar in no uncertain terms that it would be expect the to take part. it is seen as being very much a part of the solution. being the source of the migrant vessels. and i think there is a growing sense of frustration at the almost ambivalence of many people in myanmar to deal with the situation with some very officials even distancing themselves and saying that it's not really their responsibility. so the very fact that they will be there at the negotiating table is indeed a breakthrough. voters in ireland are taking part in a historic ref remember done, they have been asked whether to a amend the contusion to allow same-sex couple to his gets married gay couples are already allowed to sign civil partnerships but friday's vote could make ireland the first country in the world to allow gay marriage by popular vote. european leaders are meeting in the latvian capital for a sum out eastern european partnership.

but the meeting is likely to be overshadowed by greece's debt crisis. after meeting germany and france on thursday, greece admitted it will not be able to pay its next bailout installment. 's supposed to hand over $340 million by june the 5th. greece's attempt to change strict labor regulations is at th heart. the ruling party came to power on promises of ending painful austerity measures and reversing hyun employment. john tykes a look at wheer the new government has made any progress. >> rorter: she has just earned her diploma as an anesthesiologist after 15ears of study and practice, she cannot find work. >> translator: i have gathered knowledge and experience, the problem is i cannot use them. there is a hiring freeze in the public sector. you can get a temporary one-year posting for a thousand your owes a month without equipment or

materials. so we can't practice what we have learned. >> reporter: her plight is the plight of her generation, more than half of young people are officially unemployed. those who start on minimum wage earn $500 a month. but many are forced to work on the black market with no health or retirement benefits. the government says all austerity policy that his lowered minimum wage and slimmed the public payroll haven't produced growth but recession and unemployment. >> if at the time of the crisis what you choose to do is artificially reduce demands by suppressing wages you accelerate and augment the problem. it is not a matter of a left government or a right government a left oriented policy proposal or a right wing orntedolicy proposal. in my oon, it is pure, and simple, may i srelaabor three years ago under an unelected pmeminier the gh of thatotearked

one ofhe large and most vient prote the crisis. is is the suaon the left wing vowed to overturn when it was elected in january. >> they want to restore minimum wage to $800 a month in order to boost consumer spending. it wants to prevent employers from laying off more than 5% of their workforce in one go. and it wants to bring back collective wage bargaining. got adviser explains why. >> translator: the problem with individual bargaining is that you are a loan against the company. unions may have agreed on a minimum wage of eight hewn euros in your sector and the employer says i can't give you eight up, if you want you can sign an individual agreement for 500. take or leave it. there is one and a half mill an unemployed bargain with employers. >> reporter: it's popular but its own boring aning position is weak uncertain at this has cut the growth forecast to just half of 1% this year.

and without growth, there is no visible end to unemployment for her or the rest of her generation john, al jazerra athens. ray mass tune hal was been held in colombia for victims of a land slide that killed at least 84 people earlier this week burials were held for some of the victims while rescue workers continued their search for those still missing. more than 500 people have had their homes destroyed. police in chile fired tear gas and water an young outside apartment during protests. demonstrators demanding free education tried to break pass at a barrier as the president gave her anum state of the nation speech. our latin american editor, lucia newman reports. >> reporter: protesters and riot police played cat and mouse on the streets to hours even as the president delivered her state of

the nation address. a mixture of students, trade union assists and representatives of just about everyone dissatisfied with the way the government is handling the country came out to protect protect. the demonstrators refuse today back down clearly in a food foote a fight. violent clashes during the annual presidential address is almost always happening. as demonstrators were scribbling graffiti on this wall, the man living in the apartment above began firing on the crowd killing two students right where i am standing. as police held back protesters the president focused on what she called her government's accomplishment. >> translator: chile is going through one of its most important transformation processes in its history. what we have before us is the opportunity to build among

everyone a better country. >> reporter: but no one here was listening. >> translator: this is a protest by the social movement that do not feel represented by what sh*eg the president is saying. >> reporter: the president recognize that his she has a serious credibility problem. she made a number of proposal to his try to win back confidence but as a sign carried by the frosters reads we don't believe her anymore which means the president will need to do much more than the proposals to recover her lost popularity. lucia newman, al jazerra valparaiso chile. a grand jury in the u.s. city of baltimore has confirmed charges against six police officers over the death of freddy gray. he died in april while in police custody after suffering a spinal cord injury. his death throwed mass protest as cross the country against police brutality. one policeman has been charg with second degree murder.

california's local government is deploying hundreds employees and volunteers to clean up an oil spill. 2,500-barrels ofrude oil leaked from a pipeline on tuesday in santa barbara. jacob ward. reports. >> reporter: this beach is the kind of place you see in oil pointings in the local restaurants, but now it's covered in oil. federal and state officials are only just beginning to come to grips with how much got out of a pipeline here and in to the water. >> you know, with any oil spill response there is always things complicate the response. for example, tonight we had to stop our smming operation says this eveningecause of the weatherigh winds a waves gotooho 50e678he spill comes dur theigratory season for hump back whale gray wles and see lions which travel hess waters to their feeding ground, they are swimming through one of nature's most toxic reaces, expose tower

petroleum probably killed large numbers of animals in texas for at least three years after the spill. with each high tied, more oil continues to hit this shoreline. because resources here are limited. >> why not have boom as long the shore keep it -- the high tied from bringing the oil? >> a lot of it comes down to available bit the amount available. it's impossible to get all of the oil. our crews are trying to get as a ashore as you can see here, we have to have then crews address it. >> reporter: as the clean up efforts continue here, the one thing is certain memorial day will not happen for this stretch of california coastline. there are armed guards posted here to keep people off the beach. and officials tell us it could being weeks maybe months before anyone gets to use this beach again. jacob ward, al jazerra outside santa barbara california. dozens of restless ends of the u.s. state of texas have been forceed from their homes because of widespread flooding. heavy rain has inundated parts

of i've yearlong drought. forecasters are warning of more rainfall at the weekend. you can read about the impacts of the weather and news from around the world by logging on to our website. aljazerra.com. caltech this is "techknow", a show about innovations that saves lives. we explore hardware and humanity in a unique way. this is a show about scientists by scientists. let's check out the team of so-called nerves. lindsay moran, an analyst - new technology can make guns safer. does it work. we put it to the "techknow"