development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live... saudi arabia says it's repelled one of the biggest houthi attacks in its territory since the rey fighting fighting in yemen began. >> welcome to are al jazeera from our headquarters in doha, i'm elizabeth peranem. tariqtariq aziz dies at 79. just days before the

parliamentary election, a bombing. and why senior he wants off the japanese island. >> saudi arabia says it shot down a scud missile near the city of hamis mushait. stopped a major tack by yemeni attackers, republican guards, their loyal to yemen's where former president, ali abdullah saleh. it is thought dozens of republican guards were killed. dozens of clashes in aden, several people have been killed, many others injured. and fighting broke out in the city of ta'izz with popular

resistance fighters battling houthi militia bombing a home from houthi fighters had been gathering. bode sites are trying to gain the upper hand before talks in geneva expected to start on the 15th of june. >> this is 30th attack invasion we could say into hoought territory. four hours ago the houthis had set back pushed back to the yemeni border by saudi military air strikes by the fears resistance in saudi arabia, but the last couple of hours the houthis have entered back, taking control of many of the district there. so this is a war that, before the ceasefire each side want to enter the ceasefire negotiation

with the upper hand. and as you of now i do feel the houthis are surprisingly, we didn't expect saudi invasion of yemen but for the houthis to invade 60 to 70 kilometers in, and still continue this is a serious issue and i think saudi arabia mutt be serious before it goes out of hand. >> graham says the war in yemen can only end through dialogue. >> right now it looks very hopeful and i think whole international community hopes they go to geneva and resolve this through peaceful negotiations. i think if the last two months has showed the world anything it has shown us just by bombing the yemeni people will not solve anything. people refusing to go to the negotiating table, there is no hope. if you get them to the negotiating table programs the

international community perhaps the united nations will be able to prevail phenomenon yemenis and the saudis, can be the come to agreement. >> city of damascus has been under siege for the past two years. the city in idlib problems of struggled to release an injured child after she was trapped under rubble. launching air strikes in various part of anbar province to try and retake it from i.s.i.l. in the city of samara, five i.s.i.l. destroyed and killed more than 65 members of the group.

u.s. state department spokesman john kirby despite the recent advances by the armed group. >> we know that the most important boots on the ground in iraq are going to be iraqi boots on the ground and prime minister abadi has also made that clear that is army which he wants to fight i.s.i.l. our president our commander in chief has made clear that there's not going to be u.s. troops on the ground in a combat role. that doesn't mean we don't have troops there as you well no, 3,000 there as advisors and trainers trying to help the iraqi security forces go after this enemy. i do not see that change but we're going to be monitoring that as we execute it every single day but i see no change in that for us at all from our perspective. i think it's important that we

don't confuse tactical purpose with a strategic purpose. i think that's what happened here. nobody is trying to understate what happened in ramadi and certainly nobody is happy what happened there. it was a tactical defeat by the iraqi security forces. we understand that. prime minister abadi has talked about that. but that's far from saying that the strategy is unsound or that it's not working. actually in truth if you look at the last nine or ten months that we've been operating against this particular group as a coalition we've continued to make solid progress. >> now one of saddam hussein's most trusted and loyal ministers tariq aziz has died. he surrendered to u.s. troops in 2003 when saddam hussein was toppled. >> traveling the globe meeting world leaders he defended his

boss's regime at all turn. tariq aziz deflected the blame. >> according to the information that i had it was the iranians who bombed be halabja with chemical weapons not iraq. >> came to the baath party in the 1950s. by the time baathists came to power in 1968 the former english teacher became foreign minister tasked with strengthening diplomatic relations between baghdad and washington. but when saddam hussein ordered the be astack invasion of kuwait in

1990s the results were devastated aziz's loyalty was never shake.. he continued to condemn saddam's condefend saddam's policies, that loyalty couldn't keep saddam in power and in 2003 the u.s. invaded. treekdz wastariq aziz was the ace of spades in the u.s. government's pack of cards. convicted on two different counts sentenced to 22 years in prison. the next year he was sentenced to death by the iraqi supreme court for the persecution of religious parties. he remained in prison on death

row and loyal to saddam until his death. kim vanel, al jazeera. >> to turkey now where two people have been killed, more than 100 injured after two blasts at a election rammy in diyarbakir in the southeast. the explosions were about five minutes apart the prosyrian turkey party representative was about to speak. >> the fact that this incident came two base before sunday's polls cast a shadow over the election. we'll hold the election one way or the other. we're making every effort to carry out the election. >> death toll of the ship that capsized in the yangtze river has reached 331.

more than 450 mainly elderly tourists were on board. only 14 survivors were found including the captain. now with thousands of pieg rants making the dangerous sea journey in north africa to europe italian sailors are coming to the rescue of those found at sea. hoda abdel hamid has the story. >> their mission is to patrol and protect the borders of italy including the maritime ones but for a few years now it goes well beyond that. the guard of finance says the rescue operation of migrants making the journey across the mediterranean sea. >> translator: saving human lives is really gratifying especially when there were children. once there was a baby who gave no signs of life. it was emotional.

>> when the sea is rough we have to keep them calm, bring them on board as quickly as possible. once they were singing they were all singing old and young. >> the state-of-the-art vessel, its on board camera can zoom in about ten nautical miles away, that's about 18 kilometers. but finding the tiny dinghies or fishing boats used by traffickers is much more difficult. the search happens in international waters south of italy where other eu nation is are patrolling by sea or by sair air. >> we are in front of the tripoli area this is where most of the migrants get rescued so any boat that's in the area needs to identify itself overt wise it gets searched.

and further away the german navy. it's carrying out a rescue. see the little white dinghy on the screen? later it was destroyed by fire. for a while the smoke dominated the horizon. they are all part of the recently established triton mission. >> it consists of joint sea patrols, assists the the italian naval forces, we had to call upon commercial ships nearby ohelp. there are no borders in the sea so if there are lives to be saved we will go wherever they are even beyond the triton area. >> beyond is the area in bright blue on this map dubbed mare secura or safe area. in charge of all research and rescue operations. it's here that we saw the crew rescue nearly 250 people in little more than an hour just a few days ago.

thousands more in the past. and while the eu politicians mull over how to deal with the never ending influx, the crew continue to comb the sea in search of lives to save. hoda abdel hamid, al jazeera, in the mediterranean sea. >> still to come, greece's priements feels the heatgreece's primeminister feels the heat at home. and mexico's upcoming election. oming election. is

>> good to have you with us. i'm elisabeth peranem. these are the top stories. earlier state media said it had stopped a major attack by yemeni rebels said to have been carried out with yemeni republican guard loyal to ali abdullah saleh. two people killed and 100 injured in a blast in southeast turkey. and one of saddam hussein's most trusted and loyal ministers tariq aziz has died after a heart attack. he surrendered to u.s. troops in 2003 when saddam hussein

toppled. greece's prime minister has told his parliament that any agreement with international creditors must include the promise of debt relief. athens has postponed paying back hundreds of millions of dollars until the end of the month. john siropolous has more. >> sound thrashing from the opposition exearmt parties the socialists and conservatives they said take the deal, it won't get better. what he's been given is the 11% discount on the amount greece owes. roughly a 50% discount on debt repayment for three years. that will leave him another 11 or $12 billion to spend on growth creation, but he hasn't gotten any relief on austerity measures that the creditors are

have asked for more pension cuts salary cuts in the education sector, and vat taxes on sensitive goods like electricity services and on medicine and those are things that the socialist government or left wing government has said it simply will not do. it is a core election promise those are the measures that led to the downward spiral of the greek economy in the first place and the recession of the last four years. we are either at a situation where the greeks will reject the proposition that's on the table or hope for improvements. >> calling for the ceasefire in eastern ukraine to be fully respected. since the deal was broken in february nadim baba has more. >> ukrainian army troops in the

senator of marenka. firmly under their control after two days of fierce fighting. left nearly 30 people dead in some of the worst fighting since the ceasefire known as the minsk agreement was filed in february. ukraine's president petro poroshenko has tod united nations that 50,000 ukrainian troops have been deployed. have. >> translator: is russian aggression possible or not? i can tell you the amount of troops on the russian border is unprecedented. since august of this year there's never been this amount of troops deployed on the borders. >> that matter was taken up by the united nations envoy at a special meeting of the security council in new york.

>> disrupting the minsk process the recent assaults are an attempt on the russian side to exert military pressure on the be affairs. >> for his part, russia's envoy accused killing of pro-russian separatists. >> i won't go into a discussion with my ukrainian colleague, of the charge of the united nations and international law international humanitarian law either to many provisions have been violated 50 kiev throrts andby the kiev arefighters. >> the u.n. urged both sides to take steps to stop fighting. >> suggesting the military track

has not been abandoned in favor of the political one. these events undermine the need to break the cycle of violence now, before further escalation takes place. >> the leader of the self styled donetsk people's republic says the latest fighting has killed about 400 ukrainian soldiers. whether or not that's accurate, what some people are calling a low level war is clearly far from over. nadim baba, al jazeera. >> there are currently troops ton japanese island of okinawa. the residents have repeatedly voiced their opposition to the droops. mike viqueria reports. >> governor of the yap neefs japanese

prefecture of okinawa. his mission on a six day trip to washington to convince anyone who will listen a u.s. military facility on his island has to go. marine air station encircled by a town of 10,000. there's been accidents, be a helicopter crash and rape, the move to another part of okinawa has been met with protest. a small armada of sail boats. mostly they want the middle marines

marines off okinawa. >> the people are supporting us. >> that governor is onaga. he campaigned against the u.s. bases and in november was elected in a landslide. more than half the 50,000 u.s. military personnel on japan are stationed on okinawa. but the island is tiny and out of all the prefek prefectures okinawa's is the lowest. most okinawans say they would be better without it. there's one big problem the governor wants the base to stay on okinawa but when he walked these halls in congress he didn't get very far.

in april president obama welcomed japanese prime minister shinnzo abe to washington. as neighboring tensions arise both agreed the marines should stay on okinawa. while in d.c., onaga suffered another blunt set back. american officials read a statement, the governments of united states and japan air field at camp swab schwab. >> what i felt from their facial expressions i felt they understood the issue of oklahoma gnaw nah wa deeper. >> despite his struggle to be heard in washington, he sees a silver lining.

mike viqueria chem al jazeera washington. >> thousands living near mount silabong the alert status has raised to its highest level on wednesday. the mountain bounced back into life after many years of inactivity. >> now the vision antileaders want to fight within the political arena and upcoming. >> days battling the brutal knight templar cartel took over sways of michoacan province in mexico. he rose to prominence with the high powered assault rifle.

today the hat has gone stayed but the gun is gone. >> they're a bunch of crooks who lie to everyone. >> he sees smefl as himself as an outsider. >> i've talked to vigilante groups and said to them that we need to attack from both sides. we need to get into the politician circle as well and that might make it easier to get what we want. >> with the farmers uprising petering out now is the moment to move to politics. the vigilante movement has gradually been absorbed into a new entity called the rule police force complete.

but the issues remain crime murder and a sense of governmental respect. she's close to the vigilante move approval, one of the leaders until he was put in jail. she says she's continuing her brother's purpose. >> i want the widows and orphans to set as a base of change through reason being work and mooument help. >> the killing has continued only last month one was shot dead and in the morning of our interview, mora called off a

meeting. we implored him to keep his word and not end up like the politicians that he says he's fighting to face. >> now, new new york's rockefeller center is known for a giant christmas tree. but the artist thomas hasigo explains. >> holm, myhello. my name is thomas hasigo. the face looks like what it means to look, what it means to look at, what do you recognize what don't you. so in the weird way that's started to kilo coalesce.

what is interesting about the pentagon is it's a structure but it's not even. it's always, you know, you's have one of the marvetion being in the visual plane of one another. they are always reacting to one another. doing a pentagon it opened up the space. i think it's a really important component of life and this gives you the opportunity to address the massive public. it's not selling you anything, it's not meant to show you a lifestyle you're supposed to have. it's thrill of little children, that was super-moving just beautiful. these kids, wanted to go off and make masks for their teacher and that couldn't be a better like, that's like a blessing.

>> and just a reminder you can always catch more of our up to date news on our website at aljazeera.com, where you'll find much more news all around news in fact and programs too aljazeera.com. >> ali velshi. "on target" tonight. could put american paychecks in jeopardy. why income inequality made worse. america's economy is looking up. more jobs being created, wages finally ticking upwards so what