bold... never predictable... >> the should be worried about heart disease, not terrorism... >> i wouldn't say that at all... >> you'll see a show that has an impact on the conventional wisdom that goes where nobody else goes... >> my name is imran garda i am the host of third rail and you can find it on al jazeera america heavy fighting in three syrian cities, as different rebel groups launch major attacks. ♪ ♪ hello is there from al jazerra's headquarters in doha. i am laura kyle. also ahead. >> we are one step from famine. >> the unites nations warns that 10s of million of people in yemen are at risk of starvation. negotiations breakdown in greece so new talks begin.

nepal's government appeals for billions of dollars to help rebuild the country after devastating earthquakes. ♪ ♪ we begin in syria where rebel groups hollande wered major attacks against government fors in a hleb owe and a city south of the capital damascus, after two years of fighting for control of the strategic laura moon schwa irrelevant in aleppo, rebels now say they have seized that area and taken control of the surrounding government barks in northwest aleppo city. further south syrian action have a tests say rebels have attacks other areas and overnight. 12 people have been killed and at least 70 wound ed in an isil attack on the syrian town of kobane. isil fighters have also stormed the city in northeastern syria overnight and seized control of

several districts. a suicide car bomber attacked the city's western entrance, we are joined by a consultant fellow from the royal united services institute, a british think tank for security and defense issues. there has been a lot going on in syria over the last few years hours, let's look at the gains the rebel fighters are making in aleppo and daa r.a. take us through how significant they are. >> well, the aleppo situation is significant in that this is an area the rebels have been fighting for for nearly two years. they are at the western gate of the city and this is where the government forces have been trying to hold this area particularly because they have an intelligence facility nearby. this is a significant situation. it's very likely, i am afraid,

that the government, if it's pushed will have to resort to some drastic measures probably using air strikes and, of course, air strikes in a built up area is only likely to damage property but also to hurt civilians. >> absolutely. how coordinated do you think these rebel attacks are in these two cities? >> it's hard to tell if there is any coordination because there are so many players. in this game. the only area that may be coordinated is the syrian army and they are supported by a number of golf states. it's very possible that their offensives are being coordinated. of course the syrian army will be responding to those offensives. it's probably taking initiative, it seems that it's air attacks in palmyra are an i nerve in

response to the threat that isis is likely to pose to the nearby oil fields. but, of course, isis doesn't really work with any other groups. unless it's opportune. what isis is doing is almost certainly in response to some of the pressure that the freer syrian army groups are putting on the syrian army elsewhere. and we have the ypg who again in kobane are respond to go threats from isis. it's a very complex situation. and i think rather than it being coordinated, i think it's just a lot of individuals either taking opportunities or respond to go threats. >> okay. let's just look a little bit closer at the isil advanceadvances that we are seeing today in the north and north cease, and the attack on kobane i'm few days ago we were talking about isil being on the back foot with the kurds gaping the upper hand remember it's

impossible, isn't it to underestimate this group? >> of course it's impossible. i bybut i think it's a general point. insurgencies are not to be analyzed in the same way as conventional armies. they tend to ebb and flow. they never really stand and fight. if the pressure gets intense they always move away. and they attack somewhere else at a different time, different place of their own choosing. so a lot of their fighting is not so much to hold or gain territory, it's to send political and psychological messages to to the enemy to say hey, you thought you beat us but we are here and gaining. i thought we'll see a lot of this ebbing and flowing and it shouldn't really be seen as a linear push. although it is possible if this concerted attack continues for any length of time that the syrian army, which is a conventional force is really the only conventional force in this

game, might collapse because conventional forces tends to have a more linear a approach if you push them hard enough they tend to a collapse quickly. >> thanks very much for joining us there from london, very interesting to get your views. meanwhile, u.s. senate committee has been told the battle to defeat isil will take years. alan fisher reports from washington. >> reporter: from the panel of the american strategy is the right one is just not enough. >> the best option is department approach because indigenous ground forces are required to defeat this formidably hybrid enemy in a lasting way. however, the ways and means currently applied are inadequate. >> reporter: barack obama has been determined to avoid putting u.s. combat troops in to the battle with isil instead giving training to iraqi forces and sending advisers to help coordinate the battle. but from the conservative think tank the american i want prize i want tuesday which supported the

original iraq invasion the suggestion america needs a bigger commitment. >> are we in this or not? is this our war or isn't it? if it is we need to be prepared ever our people serve alongside iraqs. the subcommittee has been examining the current strategy. which the president has admitted has taken time to define. >> we don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place. how that training takes place and so the details of that are not yet worked out. >> reporter: while there is no drive to have sunni tribes involved in rising up against aisles. there is a warning that successes have to be backed up. >> sunnis are making life and death calculations about which side do they throw their support behind. and if they see that -- if they believe that after rising up against isis, six months from

now isil will be back because of our fecklessness, they are not going to do that. and therefore there needs to be a consistent perception of progress being made. >> reporter: the white house will have had these arguments before and will listen to any recommendations the committee wants to i can ma. the policy is being driven by the president and for the moment there is no change. alan fisher, al jazerra washington. u.n. envoy to yellen is warning that's country is close to famine. 21 million people are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. people are caught up in fighting between forces loyal to president mansur hadi and the houthi rebels and their allies they.a block out of the ports has made it difficult for agency to his deliver aid. all sides are responsible for the suffering. >> we are one step, one step far from famine. we have only 21 million yemeni in need of humanitarian assistance,.

[ inaudible ] it was 7 million only two years ago now we are 21 million. >> from the international committee of the red cross she says aid organizations face multiple challenges delivering aid to yemen. >> it's been more than a month since we have been warning of a very serious humanitarian ca as it tough any yemen it's not just about foodal it's about water healthcare, you know shelter about everything. we have to understand that the amount of food that used to be imported to yemen before this conflict was up to 90% of the whole food that you could find in the country. over the last two months or since the air strikes have started only five to 10% of this food has entered in yemen. so you can imagine how difficult it is for poor people to find food in the first place but that's not the only problem, you know whatever food that is available inside the country it's very difficult to distribute it to areas where there are greatest needs for a

number of reasons first because there is a very severe short i'm of fuel. which makes it extremely difficult, nearly impossible to transport food from one place to the other. and secondly, because orb times you know, impartial distribution of aid is not able to happen in yep. our convoys are stopped by different armed groups who do not want us to deliver on the other side because they are the enemy. gets being access on the ground is extremely crucial for us, that's why the icrc keeps talking to all the parties in em vinnie. the coalition, all the groups inside yemen and this is how we work every day on the ground. greece's prime minister is due to restart talks with creditors as he tries to hash out a deal to avoid default on the ground his country's massive debt. late night talks on wednesday failed to find a solution as greece's debt has rejected the

late of the plans greece needs to pay one point fountain million euros or risk being declared in default and be forced out of the euro zone potentially. john has this update from athens. >> reporter: the greek delegation issued a statement late last night which is a sum rift proceedings. it says that it's a its creditors has proposed a new deal shift are shirting the burden to veil workers and pensioners in a unfair way. that's where things are left and at this hour as we speak the greek delegation did going back in to a meeting with creditors four hours from now there is another meeting of the euro zone finance ministers. so we have a repeat more or less of yesterday's schedule except tonight we have a summit which will hopefully wrap this thing up. we know what creditors are asking for. they are asking for $4 billion in savings this year. now, the greek side has shifted. if you remember at the beginning

of the month the proposals they put forward shifted the problem onto future budgets, there were no cuts or savings in this year's budget at all. but on monday, when they submitted their from new proposal there were significant shirt. the greeks were proposing 10 about $720 million worth of savings on pensions, and about another $750 million worth of increased taxation on consumer tax. we don't know how far that position has shifted since then. we do know that yesterday morning mr. tsipras was very unhappy as he letter for brussels on the basis of this new proposal that the creditors had made saying then that either the cred dorse do not want to deal or they are colluding with the political opposition at home to prevent him from striking one. still to come here on al jazerra. the man sentence today death for the boston marathon bombing says sorry for the first time. and a simmering indonesian

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♪ ♪ held going the top stories this hour here on al jazerra. syrian rebel groups have launch aid major assault against government forces in northwest aleppo. the fighters say they have ceased the extra team i can layramoun square and the surrounding government barracks. u.n. envoy to yemen is warning the country is one step away from familiar i believe. 21 million people are now in

urgent need of humanitarian assistance. had. and talks between greece and its creditors are about to resume at late night negotiations failed to make any progress. greece could default on a 1.5 billion euro payment which is due next week. and it risks being pushed out of the euro zone. now, volcano in western indonesia has become more active forcing thousands of people from their homes, on the island it has been spewing ash and lava over the past few days, once considered a dormant volcano it erupted in 2013 and has continued to rumble. stefanie dekker is in the vellum close. she joins us live from there. it's such a fantastic view that you have behind you i imagine standing that close isn't quite as nice as it looks just how active is it?

>> reporter: well, it's been very active this morning. before 9:00 in the morning seve runningses, we did hear a bit of a rumble about 10 minutes ago but we haven't been able to see anything, just shows you the unpredictability of it. around 10,000 people have been evacuated from the surrounding areas of that mountain. villagers who tends to their farms there, they have their homes there livestock, they are there now in camps around this area, it is difficult for the government, but they do have some experience in dealing with this. this is one of 130 active volcanos in i indonesia, this is the country with the biggest amount of volcanos in the world it goes to show how difficult it is for the government to deal with these situations mother nature, of course, no one can control mere. >> ababsolutely. they have evacuated villagers they are happy to go, understanding the threat well and are being well looked after? >> reporter: they do understand the threat,, but of course, no one wants to leave their homes

there is an exclusion zone, a danger zone that has been set up southeast and south of the volcano, that's the area where we are in, seven-kilometers, all that area has been cleared and all the people house ed in camps to give you an indication around 6,000 people have been house ed in these camps since last year, she has been active for a while. 16 people died in february of last year when there was an eruption. so it can be fatal. which is why it needs to be taken so seriously by the government. and the problem is at the moment there is no end in sight she's been rumbling for a while but the villagers go back during the day to tend to their crops because it is, of course, their livelihood, that is a fear because there is this hot ash cloud that the volcano produce which his can also being deadly. the villagers not happy but full aware of the dangers that the volcano pose to his them. >> i wanted to mention that ash cloud, we are seeing shots of it on our screens it looks so defense. what is the impact on people nearby, and you guys who are

there? >> reporter: where we are at the moment it's not huh heavy. there are areas when we were driving up the mountain to get here villages where everything was extremely dull. this is an area with a very rich greenery foliage the asian scenery in the indonesian an countryside. it became dull. it looked lake a sand storm basically. we have seen the army go up to a vellum further up to get vellummers more. [ inaudible ] so that is a danger the ash cloud traveled 70-kilometers the hot ash cloud which is the more dangerous one which is the one that comes from the volcano itself that's gone as far as 3.5-kilometers. when there is a huge eruption there hasn't been a huge eruption, they have been small when there there is a huge eruption to give you an indication of how quick that can travel up to 700-kilometers an hour, it gives you a sense of quite how dangerous a hugy ripping can be and very difficult to get out of the way. >> on, step, thanks very much of

don't get too close but keep up updated. the boston marathon bomber has apologize today his victims before being sentence today death. three people were killed and 260 injured by tsarnaev and his older brother who was shot and killed by police in 2012. >> reporter: for the first time since police named him as one of the people responsible for the boston marathon bombings two years ago dzhokhar tsarnaev spoke publically saying to the court i am sorry for the lives that i have taken. and to the survivors and victims' families he said i pray for your relief. for your healing for your well being and for your strength. >> i wish he had done it before. you know i think it was a lot too late. >> reporter: not all survivors feel the same way. >> i did feel very reassured that he acknowledged our suffering, that meant a lot to me. >> reporter: tsarnaev's words came a couple of hours after gut

wrenching testimony 22 dozen survivors and families of the people that died. mile mean talked about their fall loss they talk about their emotional loss. many suffer from nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks some took the opportunity to hold him accountable for his brother tamerlan who has been dubbed the mastermind were the mother of crystal campbell who died said to tsarnaev, obviously you are intellectually very bright and you could have helped your brother get help. what you did to my daughter is disgusting. i don't knowi don't know what to say to you the jury did the right thing. the family of the youngest victim who wanted tsarnaev to get life instead of death so he would be forced to think about the crime he committed said this, he could have stopped his brother, he chose hate, he chose destruction, he chose death. throughout all of the statements tsarnaev stared

blankly at the floor. the final victim to speak was young amputee rebecca gregory who refuses to call herself a victim. she is the only one to look directly am hit. terrorists like you do two things being one is create mass destruction, the second is quite interesting, you know what mass destruction really does, it brings people together. we are boston strong, we are america strong so how is that for your victim impact statement. erica pits is a, al pitzi, al jazerra boston. in armenia demonstrations over plans to raise he lick strict atelectricityprices have continued. the power is provided by russia and protesters say they are taking advantage of the monopoly monopoly. >> reporter: the traditional dance gives you some sense of the vehicle here, it's op at this nix relaxed but people have grievances they want to see an end to corruption, they want to see an end to the price hiker

they want to see an end to the monopoly so that they can get ahold of the economy in this country. what protest say is that this is not about a pro protest against russia, it's a protest against a russian company which has gone too far it has a monopoly on the electricity supply here in armenia and at the 16% price hike it's too much. for most ordinary people. a third of the armenian population live below the poverty line. they are shouting. [ inaudible ] or mean yeah, the crowd has been growing uneasy. [ inaudible ] makeshift. [ inaudible ] full of trash and at the far end we have the police the other day they tried to firewater cannon at the protesters. but instead of fright inning people way that's had the opposite effect. nepal's neighbor india has

pledged $1 billion for earthquake reconstruction. at a donor conference in kathmandu, the huge quake in april claimed almost 9,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands homeless, we have a report. >> reporter: villagers just outside kathmandu haven't waited for the government to build them temporary homes. monsoon rains have started. and almost 200 of the 900 households have a roof above their heads. with the help of private donors. residents here say they would have had more shelters by now if the government had been more helpful. a community leader coordinating temporary housing projects is frustrated by the government's slow pace. >> translator: we have had foreign groups trying to help us but they have been struggling with authorizations that they need from the government. the government has not herb given us $150 promised by the state. the government should look to encourage foreigners who are offering help by regulating and monitoring their work.

>> reporter: napoli government leaders announced anyone who want today help the relief effort had to go through the prime minister's fund. many private donors didn't want the government to handle their money. now the government is trying to find $7 billion for reconstruction. the earthquake has damaged more than 800,000 800,000 houses. the cost of the rebuilding these would be roughly $3 billion while the government is looking for support to cover these costs, locals hope that bureaucratic red tape is not going to hamper the process of recon instructionreconstruction. a few days earlier the government announce said a new authority. >> we are now creating a special authority which can quicken the pales of immaterial immaterial me men station to even bend the rules to circumvent the process and to even simply buy things with this authority headed by the prime minister, special authority and

the immaterial police theming implemented agency of the government outside the government i think any concern about the government, any concern about management and administration would be resolved. >> reporter: over the past two months longstanding international development partners have also been criticized as well as the government. now both sides are hoping reconstruction will move forward in a spirt of collaboration. [ inaudible ] to be provided a toss how exactly the agency -- this new agency will work. its authority and its composition and the international community hopes that it is as unpolitical as possible. it has a very -- it should have very clear routes of standard operating procedures. it should have mechanisms for accountability and transparency.

>> reporter: villagers are not holding their breath. they say that life has to go on. with or without government help. but they want to have a say on how their village will be reconstructed. al jazerra. it's 65 years since the start of the korean wore, the south korean government is hosting a memorial serve let seoul to mark the occasion, it began as a civil war between the north and south. but under u.s. leadership the u.n. joined to support south korea and china entered to aid north korea. al jazerra spoke to one south korean who lived through the upheaval of the war and now tells his story to visiting tourists. >> i am sam kim, i am 68 years come december. now i live south of seoul. my job here is a tour guide. english tour guide. sometimes it's very strange living in the same place at the

same time i give tour guide about the korean war which happened 50, 70 years ago. for example, we have many american visitors, i focus my attention to american's role think when i have greek visitors, i focus on greek role, and french, like that. at the time america thought greece and turkey was the target of the soviet russia across the black sea they came came here not knowing much. but by the end of the tour they were pretty satisfied. there is the moment i feel quite happy about it. general mcarthur flew in. he was old, 70 years old having problem like me, worse than me i guess, but he stood here and thought it was a miracle north korea still up the river. but to the young koreans it's things past. so likewise korean war doesn't seem much important to them.

sometimes it's very strange when north koreans provoke us and so many people become serious about north korean threat. at that point, at that moment young people pay attention. what was it like to fight the chinese said we can't fight them point blank. so we should defeat them. at nighttime. well, to me, this area now you stand, 150,000 korean, south koreans lost and 37,000 u.n. gorals lost. their names are listed here. sometimes i still couldn't understand why they are here. traveling far away, dieing here, but i certainly know their contributions. because of them, because of their sacrifices, contributions today's korean people could

enjoy their prosperity. and freedom. in colombia a mother and her baby boy have been found alive several days after the plane they were in crashed in defense jungle. 18 yearly nelly and her son were rerescued on wednesday they were taken to the hospital with only minor injuries. >> the us is now the world's largest oil and gas producer in part because of what's happening here in north dakota where advances in fracking have unlocked crude oil in the bakken shale formation in the western part of the state. north dakota is now producing more than a million barrels of oil a day. ten years ago there were fewer than 200 oil-producing wells in the bakken. now there are more than 8,000. >> they call it boomtown usa this