tonight, and we go live... >> a deadly attack as a blast rips through a mosque. hello there. we have the world news from al jazeera. embarrassment from the pentagon after suffering a major setback. the pro government forces continue to gain ground in the south against houthi rebels. >> get a warrant! get a judge to sign a warrant!

>> wait, senator christy, make your point. >> republican leading candidates face off in the first presidential debate. we start in saudi arabia where isil says it is responsible for a suicide bombing inside a mosque used by security forces. 15 people were killed in one of the biggest attacks against the country's security forces in years. it happened in the town of abal which is close to the saudi border with yemen. saudi arabia is part of the u.s. led coalition against the armed group. isil is becoming increasingly active in saudi arabia. >> reporter: this is where the attack took place. a suicide bomber managed to get into this mosque in the southern city, blowing himself up and killing police trainees.

the governor visited the injured in a nearby hospital. fighters from the islamic state claim responsibility for the attack. they included the targeting of muslim mosques in may. 25 worshipers were killed in the heartland of saudi arabia's shia minority. police arrested hundreds of suspected isil members and displayed some of the weapons which were confiscated. the so you did i minister of interior said it stopped isil attacks on mosques, security forces and western diplomats. they have a search when al qaeda launched nationwide attacks. security forces led a crackdown. al qaeda's top leaders were

either killed, arrested or fled to yemen where they formed al qaeda in the arabian peninsula six years ago. now saudi arabia faces new challenges, a fight at home against isil and a minister campaign in neighboring yemen against houthi militias. >> the attack races serious concerns. >> this is the deadliest attack against the kingdom inside its territory over a decade. so that's quite a significant concern. the second piece of this is they targeted elite forces. the fact they managed to get inside the ministry of interior facility and hit trainees means that the gloves have come off

and that saudis have a bit of a problem in terms of level of sophistication. and the third issue is that this attack came in the immediate wake of a pretty significant crackdown against isis and other affiliate extremists. we had a sweep in which 134 people were picked up. but this group slipped through the cracks. this has to raise questions in saudi arabia. are the pentagon defended its decision to train and equip moderate fighters in syria in order to take on isil. they accuse the u.s. of failing to protect them. we have more from washington d.c. syrian fighters trained by the united states now refusing to fight, this video released on social media appears to show

some of the fighters in cap activity after an attack last week north of awilalepo. a sixth recruit has been killed. its white house is under scrutiny for the apparent failure of the operation. >> would you say the white house is disappointed? >> we have been forthright about the significant challenges that operation has faced. but it has not significantly encumbered the other aspects of our strategy. >> known as division 30 accused of pentagon of misrepresenting its mission. it signed up to battle isil, it's also opposed to u.s. air strikes carried out on al qaeda fighters. the pentagon denies it distorted its battle plan. >> we acknowledge there is

challenges. the idea that we were caught totally flat-footed by the idea we were sending people into a dynamic and rapidly changing war zone is not accurate. >> still, the united states spent money and months training the fighters, supplying them with sophisticated night vision equipment. but success is not contingent on one battle. even if the first foray into combat for the u.s. backed group is a failure. the u.n. security council is expected to adopt a draft resolution on friday to investigate chlorine gas attacks in syria. john kerry had reached an agreement with his russian counterpart. they met in malaysia. the first commercial flight touched down in aden.

coalition forces secured the city from houthi rebels last month. they are gaining ground in the southern provinces after taking back an important military base. >> reporter: on patrol, pro government forces comb through yemen's biggest military base. fighters loyal to president hadi retook the base. they are calling it a significant blow to the houthi rebels and those fighting for the former president. >> we have cleared them out. with the help of the coalition our fighters are in control and we are still pushing back houthi fighters. >> reporter: the victory coincided with new shipments of military hardware from the saudi-led coalition. they also destroyed the watchtower and most aircraft. >> translator: we are now in the air base. as you can see, the situation is

good. the most important thing is that we now have the airport. >> reporter: securing it has given it control of the roads linking three provinces. crucially, the base lies on the road to tias, the next target for the coalition. battles that have already turned many neighborhoods into rubble with the support of air strikes, the pro government forces are trying to take back yemen's third largest city. they want to build on their recent gains that have swept them from aden northwards and they hope tias will be next. a french woman kidnapped in yemen has been freed. isabel prime will return to france in the coming hours. that's according to a statement released by the french president's office. they were abducted by gunmen on

the 24th of february. eight people have died in a suicide attack in afghanistan's capital of kabul. police say the bomb was hidden in a truck and detonated near an army compound. more 400 people were injured. several houses have collapsed as a result of the blast. no one claimed responsibility for the attack. the main u.s. republican candidates for president in 2016 have faced off in their first televised debate. frontrunner donald trump was criticized. new jersey governor also had a heated exchange about the collection of telephone records. >> how are you supposed to -- >> get a warrant. >> let me tell you something. >> get a judge to sign a warrant. >> listen, senator, when you are

sitting in a subcommittee blowing hot air about this. when you are responsible for protecting the lives of the american people, then what you need to do is make sure that -- >> here's the problem. you fundamentally misunderstand the bill of rights. every time you did a case, you got a warrant from a judge. i'm talking about searches without warrants of all americans records and that's what i fought to end. i don't trust president obama with our records. i know you gave him a big hug and if you want to give him a big hug again, go right ahead. >> not so loving. matthew, you are a republican strategist and you join it's from san francisco. what did you think of that? it wasn't really as cushy. >> it was a great debate. one of the most entertaining debates i watched. the interaction between senator paul and governor christy was

the highlight. there was a lot of interaction between the other candidates. i have to say though besides that heated exchange, i thought pretty much all those candidates had presidential materials. i was pleased to see the crop that we have this year. >> all presidential material? it seemed to me that donald trump still managed to come out with his flippant comments and people still like that, do they? >> you know, i was at several debate watching parties, actually. several supporters of his actually are now reconsidering support for donald. he was the distraction, if not the loser of this debate. it will be interesting to see in subsequent debates if he goes down and other candidates will take some of his support away like dr. ben carson, governor huckabee and senator ted cruz. >> who did come out on top do

you think? >> i think the top three would be governor casich. he's the governor of ohio. he has a great track record. and he came off very sincere and a lot of people really were surprised about his performance. i would say marco rubio did a great job. he's one of the youngest candidates. it seems like he had a lot of experience and probably in high school or college debate. i would say chris christy performed well. he's been on a low dealing with some issues in the state of new jersey. he subsequently has been able to be cleared of those charges dealing with some scandals. he did a good performance. >> apart from immigration surveillance, those seem to be the main issues, outside of american politics, let's talk international. how did they come off? how did those men come off?

>> it was an interesting evolution with our party. there's a couple of party that said, hey, the iraq war was a mistake. we were misled through intelligence. the debate was whether or not we should maintain our troop levels. there is a universal agreement that the current iran deal that president obama negotiated was not the best deal for america. it was a unanimous decision we should change that deal. >> matthew, a lot of people said there was a lot of bickering, it was all very personal. do you think it could have been more presidential? they should have been answering questions of what i will do when i am president. >> i think for the most part they d the only person that kind of interjected a personal response was donald trump. he acted very petulent.

he attacked one of the moderators when she was asking about negative comments about women. she said you played comments about other women and he told her, hey, i have always been fair to you, but you have asked me tough questions. maybe i should reconsider that. i think that overall tone by donald trump will actually pretty much hurt him with women in the future. >> enjoy your debate parties. thank you very much for joining us here on al jazeera. still to come, personalities rather than policies dominate campaigning this time in sri lanka's election. and a new clue could help the fbi find out who pulled off one

of the largest art heists ever. that the gun lobby has too much power for too long. the nra is not invincible.

>> our top stories, isil said it carried out a suicide attack at a mosque. 15 people were killed. the pentagon has defended its decision to train and equip syrian opposition fighters to take on isil. the recruits accuse the u.s. of failing to protect them when they were attacked last week.

main u.s. republican candidate for president in 2016 have faced off in their first televised debate. donald trump was criticized for refusing to run as an independent candidate if he didn't win the primary. families of people missing from flight mh 370 has been canceled. >> reporter: a senior airline official was supposed to have given a briefing to families and relatives of those from the missing aircraft earlier today. but it didn't happen. families demanded that the media be allowed inside to film things. officials said no. so now the families and relatives have decided to march on the malaysian embassy demanding a meeting with the ambassador. this is something they have

tried to do in the past and it's something they have failed to achieve in the past. what upsets the families most of all is the apparent mixed message that's emerged from this inquiry during the past few days. on thursday malaysia's prime minister said that the wing part that was found on reunion island was conclusive evidence that it was from flight mh flight 370. but french prosecutors say it's probably from the missing airliner. and it's differing language that's feeding into the anger of the families. they say that it takes more than just one piece of wreckage to prove that the plane has been lost. and they are demanding that the airline now fly them to reunion so they can see firsthand the search that is now continuing. >> video of a disabled boy being beaten to death in bangladesh

has calls for his killers to be arrested. we report from northeast bangladesh on how such are taking it into their own hands. >> reporter: the pictures continue to haunt his father as he cam bains for justice. his son who suffered from mental and physical disabilities would never steal anything. but an angry mop thought otherwise. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: they killed him. pictures of the 13-year-old's murder were posted on-line. they boasted they caught a thief. >> we are poor. so he used to go to the market to help out the family by

selling vegetables. that evening his mother called and said my boy hadn't come home. >> reporter: this is the roadside market where they tied him up to this pillar. it was early in the morning. but there were still people passing by. so they took him to this garage at the back where they beat him to death. passersby did nothing to stop the assault. the murder is provoking international outrage because the video has gone viral. they usually ignore public linchings which are common. when they were attack, he was lucky to survive. he says they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> translator: me and six of my friends were hanging out in the evening near a bridge where these men with flashlights came up to us and said they were looking for robbers. we told them we were students. but they just started hitting

us. all my friends died. >> reporter: mop beatings are a sign of people's lack of faith in the justice system. the police say incidents are rare and they are working to stop them. >> reporter: such measures will bring little peace. all he wants to see is the killers punished for taking away his cherished son. the president urged people to leave the low-lying delta region. floods have killed 8 people

already. this is one of the four worst affected areas and declared a disaster zone. >> reporter: the road access is about a day ago. people tell us that they were -- that town was completely submerged. the water was up high. they have all to leave their homes and stay in the monastery. it was the only place they could go to. at least 12 people died in this township. they have been receiving aid because the road access has reopened, so more aid is coming in. they also received a government air drop supply and people have been coming in by boats to bring in supplies. people say that's not nothing. they would like to see more. along the way, we have seen some

destruction of farm land. we have seen patty fields submerge in mud covered in debris brought by the floodwaters. that's going to take weeks for people to clear. one lady said she's afraid of what she's going to be eating in the next few months, she hasn't been able to plant her next season of crops. campaigning is under way for she a language ka's election. it could see the former president make a political comeback. so far the campaign has been dominated by personalities rather than policies. >> reporter: a two-time president defeated at the last election, a prime minister with a dismal record. former youth fighters. just a few of the candidates vying for the 225 member parliament. the prime minister is promising to build a new country.

>> translator: if we could create just and fair rules in is hundred days, we could build another country with everyone's support. >> reporter: looking to replace him is a former president. he remains popular for ending a decades long civil war, but criticized for alleged human rights abuses. he says he's changed. >> translator: today we have a new approach. we have had time to think. now we have the ability to think afresh. >> reporter: some don't believe that. they say he could have brought important changes using his immense popularity, but failed to do so. >> translator: we first presented our common plan to the then president. he had the two-thirds majority. his manifesto included these

changes and we asked him to implement them. but this didn't happen. >> reporter: it appears the candidates personalities are getting the attention. including governors, the economy and posted conflict recovery seem to get lost in the process. voters must decide whether to re-elect the former president this time to parliament. or they could extend the mandate given to the president and his ally whose deviated the loyalists in january to bring change. that change, according to some observers is being seen in the way the election campaign is unfolding. >> the guidelines should be followed by officials and police departments. actually, we have never seen this kind of situation earlier. >> reporter: people will have two more weeks of campaigning before making their choices.

south sudan's rival factions have resumed peace talks. both groups have come under growing international pressure to find a solution to end the violence. fighting broke out at the end of 2014 between forces loyal to the president and rebels with his former deputy. one of the world's largest art federals, two men stole pieces. police have released security video. we have the report from new york. >> reporter: it's dark, it flickers, it's poor quality and hard to make out much of anything. but fbi agents are hoping this just released decades old surveillance video could bring in new leads. 25 years ago two men posing as

police officers walked into the stuart gardner museum in boston and walked out with 13 art masterpieces. stolen were three rembrandts including two large pointing, one being the only seascape painted. >> the stolen items are worth $500 million or more. that's a fairest mat. however, i like to point out that the pieces stolen are the true definition of pricelessness because they can never be sold, they can never be replaced. >> reporter: since the theft the museum left the walls where the art was located empty, a reminder the museum will never be complete again until the pieces find their rightful way back to home.

>> they have followed leads all over the world but all led to a dead end. they are less concerned about finding who were the perpetrators and more concerned with just finding the art even the people have it now don't realize that it was stolen. >> we understand someone who comes forward with information about the whereabouts of this artwork or any of the pieces themselves is not necessarily involved in the theft. and is not necessarily engaged in illegal activity. >> reporter: as for the video it, shows the shadow of the unidentified man exiting the car that matches the description parked outside prior to the theft. he's allowed to enter the museum after midnight. who is the man, what was he doing, what does he know. could he be the person that unlocks the mystery into the stolen art? lots of questions the fbi and art lovers want answers to, hoping the mystery doesn't go

unanswered for another 25 years. you can find out more on that story and many of our other top stories on our website, the address at the bottom of your screen is www.aljazeera.com. that's www.aljazeera.com. stay tuned. i'm ali velshi, and i'm devoting the show to the trafficking of children as sex workers, a crime most think happens somewhere else. it's happening here in the united states. tonight - we bring you the story of a 15-year-old girl sold for sex online. hundreds of times. and the website that listed her for sale. mary snow has the story. >> we did everything with the kids. that was our philosophy as being parents.