♪ at least 18 people have been killed in an explosion in northwestern pakistan. ♪ you where watching al jazeera live from headquarters in doha and coming up, in the next half hour a vow to take down i.s.i.l. prime minister declares the armed group will be defeated in 2016 and headed to prison the former israeli prime minister will spend a year and a half behind bars. and guinea is declared ebola free but the search for a vaccine is far from over. we will bring you the story of

one clinical trial with promising results. ♪ at least 18 people have been killed in an explosion targeting a government office in northwest pakistan and police is say a suicide bomber hit a center issuing id cards and 30 people have been wounded in the attack. let's go straight now to kamal who is in islamabad and what more can you tell us about the blast and indeed this attack? >> reporter: first of all, the deputy inspector general of police that they say are speaking to the reporters said that the suicide bomber was riding a motorcycle. he tried to enter the gate of the national database registration authority where many people were cueing up for their national identity cards.

the attacker was stopped at which point he set the device off and not clear if it was close to the motor bikes or wearing a vest that contained the explosives, however there were deadly consequences, many killed and many said to be in serious condition and dozens are wounded in this particular attack and moved to the district hospital. now this is the second largest city of the province after beswar. >> any indication who could be behind this attack? >> reporter: minutes after that attack that a splinter group which is part of the taliban in pakist pakistan, a spokesman who represents a splinter group took responsibility for this attack. now, this is a group which also

carried out a deadly attack here in pakistan-india border just a few hour's drive and this group claiming another deadly attack and saying that they carried it out. >> kamal thank you for that on an update of the attack in northwestern pakistan. iraq's prime minister al-abadi vowed to re ttake mosul from i.s.i.l. and the iraqi military flew the national flag over government buildings after recapturing key parts of the city on monday and had fallen to i.s.i.l. in may. now this is the biggest advance by the government and sunni fighters in months. al-abadi says he is confident i.s.i.l. will be defeated in the year ahead. >> translator: 2015 was the year of liberation 2016 god willing to be the end of

i.s.i.l. on iraqi soil and their final great defeat and coming to liberate mosul and will be the fatal and final blow to mosul for our great people. >> spokesman for the u.s. led coalition against i.s.i.l. says the ramadi offensive is not yet over. >> there is still plenty of work to do in ramadi and we still need to stabilize the remainder of the river valley and we still need to work on the rest of the tigress river valley so this is going to be a process. i want everyone to be clear that there is still a lot of work ahead of us. this enemy is still dug in deeply in portions of iraq and still have the capability to fight, still have the capability to do harm so this is going to take time. >> reporter: we have a senior fellow at the center for international governance innovation and that is a nonpartisan think tank and she says ramadi is a key testing

ground for the iraqi government. >> it's a lot easier to concur than to hold on to this territory and definitely abadi has been wanting this victory, the loss of ramadi was a huge blow to the confidence of iraqi forces and more importantly was a real stain on the deep professional military that is the iraqi forces and can it hold on is the real challenge? will it be able to regain legitimacy of the people on the ground? reality is where i.s.i.l. has conquered territory many of those places do have people who are also feeling very alienated from the central government from baghdad and abadi although quite different from his predecessor unlike maliki who alienated the population abadi is saying all the right things and trying his hardest but the proof is in the pudding as to whether or not the iraqi forces will be able to regain the legitimacy on the ground. >> set his sights on mosul and says after ramadi iraqi forces will head to mosul to try to

retake that from i.s.i.l., that is another stronghold of i.s.i.l. do you think it will be a similar fight or will that be a more difficult fight? >> it's definitely going to be a more difficult fight. mosul is a city of two million. it is primarily all arab and sunni with many minorities as well and ramadi as we know it's the capitol of anbar but a small town and not like mosul which is the second largest city in iraq so it's a huge challenge to over take mosul which we know there is about approximately 5,000 i.s.i.s. fighters in the case of ramadi i may have been 300 to a couple thousand at the most so the scale is much different but in many ways this is a testing ground for the idea of having iraqi forces in combination with sunni tribal forces to create this i think popular bottom up type of liberation force and quite different than really important here to tikrit which was liberated from i.s.i.s. but it's a disaster because of the use of shia mobilization forces

that created havoc in their wake and created alienation on the ground. >> explain to us that particular decision to not use the shia of para military forces in terms of ramadi. >> this is really vital. the shia malitia forces and mobilization forces are basical basically iranian trained gangs and not military and not as a state or multi cultural state and not trained in the professional sense of a national army. they are in effect gangs of individua individuals, hired help so to speak, mercenaries and don't necessarily follow the kinds of i think national parts of an army who is to main tan legitimacy in the ground in their wake so it's not about destroy and concur it's about thinking about the day after, what happens after you concur in keeping a positive let's say

reputation for the military force and ensuring they treat the citizens fairly on the ground in their wake. >> israel's supreme court has partially acquitted prime minister olmert of two counts of bribery and means one of olmert's jail sentences of six years has been reduced to just 18 months. the corruption case is the largest in israeli history. and we have the latest now from west jerusalem. . >> shortly after the supreme court announced its ruling mr. olmert spoke to the media in which he said that a weight had been lifted off his shoulders by this ruling, by the courts which found that he was not involved in the major aspects of bribery and corruption involving the so called holly land real estate development affair saying that he was not involved in that major corruption. however, he of course has been told that he will serve 18

months in jail for his involvement in a bribery scheme involving a different real estate plan. mr. olmert said while he accepted the court's ruling he denied taking any money, whatever the case his legacy has been cemented or will be cemented from the 15th of february from next year where he will become the first israeli prime minister to serve time in jail. the chief palestinian negotiator has responded to a new report that israel plans to build a new 55,000 settlement units in the occupied west bank and the report by ngo peace now based its findings on government data obtained under freedom of information act request, and says it would end all hopes of establishing a palestinian state. >> two things, number one for the palestinian is to immediately implement the

decisions of the palestine central council to define relations including security. secondly as arabs we need to immediately knock the door of the security council to have the motion and resolutions to the affect that not only the illegality and not only asking israel to revoke but also to declare that these actions are absolutely a violation of international law and to hold israel accountable. that is what is needed now. the worst of this is that the american congress have motioned legislation that those who have products will be subject to punishment by the united states and if the international community court opens an official investigation they will declare the appeal of terrorist organization and close the office. this is a very dangerous

development at a time when the u.s. has allies to fight in the region and fighting terror and defeating terror in the region requires us to end the israeli occupation and to establish palestinians. israel has warned brazil it faces diplomatic consequences if the country does not accept its choice of ambassador. brazil objected to danny diane's appointment to the position due to his previous role as the head of a jewish settlement movement in the bank and left brazil last week and the israeli government says that brazil risks degrading bilateral ties if diane was not allowed to succeed him and israeli settlement in the occupied west bank are illegal under international law. central america nations reached agreement to allow several thousand cuban migrants stranded in costa-rica to continue to the university and under law any

cuban on u.s. soil is allowed to apply for residency and victoria has more. >> reporter: around 8,000 cuban migrants have been stranded at this camp in costa-rica for a month and refused to let them cross in territory and migrants trying to get to the united states and central american countries holding talks in guatemala on how to resolve the crisis and agreed the cubans will fly to el salvador and bussed through guatemala and mexico to the united states. >> translator: guatemala expressed two guarantees and the first for was mexico to first allow these people to pass through the territory and the second was for there not to be any cost for guatemala. >> it has been long and complicated and many flee direct to ecuador and doesn't require cubans to have visas and traveled north through columbia, panama and costa-rica and stopped by nicaragua and any

cuban who makes it on u.s. soil is allowed to apply for residency but with improving relations between u.s. and cuba many cubans worry that may change. >> translator: it's important for the united states and cuba to work together. they are at the center of this issue along with ecuador. it's allowed these people to enter their country. >> reporter: the cubans are expected to restart their journey next week and realize their dream of making it to the united states. victoria with al jazeera. still ahead on al jazeera, we're on the road with nigeria's army and says it's on track to defeat boko haram rebels. and the latest on the al jazeera under cover investigation into the world of sports doping. ♪

♪ you are watching al jazeera and a quick recap of our stories this hour and at least 18 people killed in an explosion targeting a gunman office in northwestern pakistan and say a suicide bomber hit a center issuing id cards. israel's supreme court reduced olmert's prison term to 18 months and former prime minister sentenced six years in 2014 for fraud and bribery over a real estate deal during his time asthma mayor of jerusalem. retaking mosul from i.s.i.l. after declaring a strategic victory in ramadi and flew the national flag over government

buildings after recapturing key parts of the city on monday. hundreds of syrians trapped by intense fighting in two parts of the country have been relocated. people from the town have arrived in rebel held territory in idlib and shia regime supporters from villages in idlib arrived in damascus and we have more now from the tip near the turkey-syria border. >> reporter: wound eed fighter and families evacuated arrived in turkey and then from there they crossed into idlib. rebels stronghold in northern syria with a few exceptions some of those who were badly injured and kept in hospitals and at the same time the pro-government shia fighters and their families were evacuated and they were flown from turkey to lebanon and from there they will travel to damascus. past agreements were either put

on hold or collapsed. this one went as planned. quite a significant step forward for the international community which is hoping to bring the warring factions in syria to make similar deals in the future to sort of bridge the trust between them so once go to geneva and next month they will be able to tackle serious issues like establishing a transitional authority in syria that will put an end to four years of civil war. u.s. secretary of state john kerry says iran started fulfilling part of the nuclear deal with six world powers after a ship with iranian left to russia and under agreement they must ship out all but 300 kilograms of the material that it has stockpiled. >> iran moving forward in removing much of the inf infrastructure and making

irreparable the reactor and we will verify the steps and more and the agency is continuing its own preparations to implement the extensive monitoring and verification regime of iran's entire nuclear program. 30 killed in attacks in northeast nigeria and emergency services say two suicide bombers struck a market in the town and in neighboring borno state they opened fire and detonated explosives in a mosque in migaduri and no one claimed responsibility and boko haram claimed did the wave of attacks ahead of a deadline and gave military chiefs until december 31st to defeat the group and to maintain significant progress that it has made. al jazeera has been given access to film what was once boko haram's fortified base and we have more. >> reporter: on patrol with the

nigerian military in boko haram's former stronghold this forest is mirrored with myth and notoriety and fills many nigerians with dread. it is a vast territory seized by boko haram. a new government and military leadership took over this year and now declared the group is no longer dominant. >> translator: daily becoming more peaceful the better place than it used to be and we believe that for every second, for every minute and for every day things will continue to improve. >> reporter: still the military is stepping up operations, mopping up and securing areas they recaptured and no nigerian territory has bombing like the strait behind me and boko haram stronghold for years has been pounded from the years for

several months and it's not safe to go deep in there because of continuing military operations and the presence of ordinances and land mines planted by boko haram fighters to stop or slow down the nigerian military from advancing. military handlers took us through areas of destruction, a legacy of six years of violence. >> we think it's greater known and don't think the army is going to stay here for a very long time due to the defeat because boko haram is no longer there. >> reporter: another school occupied and ravaged by the group before the military chased them out and girls who were taken from this town long before the girls were abducted. >> translator: for two years 70-year-old fisherman couldn't go to river but now his new fish traps are ready to be laid. >> translator: but now we can go to the river and the farm and

with the troops around things are getting better and better. >> reporter: things have improved but fear remains as boko haram has carried out a series of suicide bombings recently, like many people in the northeast mohamed knows the fight for stability may continue for some time to come. mohamed devries, al jazeera, northeastern nigeria. who declared guinea free of ebola la and 42 days from recovery and death of the final patient and no new infections and ebola in west africa was first reported in guinea in march of 2014. since then 4809 people have died in liberia. 3955 in sierra leone. 2536 have died in guinea and eight in nigeria. the world health organization declares nigeria free of ebola

in october last year. liberia was declared free of ebola in may and seven weeks later more cases were reported and sierra leone was declared ebola free last month. but the search to find a vaccine against ebola is far from over. nicholas hawk reports now from a lab in sinagal in dacca where doctors are conducting clinical trials. >> reporter: when they come to the lab for testing they wonder which one of them has been injected with the experimental ebola vaccine, one given a placebo and the other a trial vaccine and scientists looking for a cure against the highly contagious and fatal ebola virus. >> translator: at first our family was scared and didn't know what they were injecting me with and wasn't sure what reactions it would cause and doctors reassured me it's my way to contribute in the fight against the virus.

>> reporter: volunteers are not injected with ebola but with a safe version of the cyrus and researchers give them two experimental vaccines one to stimulate the response and the other to boost it to enhance the body's immune system altogether so it can fight the virus on its own. >> placebo and like any other vaccines we expect some side effects such as fevers or headaches and closely monitor volunteers. our priority is to ensure their safety. >> reporter: it only takes 10-15 years to get a vaccine approved but scientists here are accelerating the testing phase to get the drug on the market as quickly as possible. this is unprecedented and scientists and researchers say it's justified because of the scale of the ebola outbreak and that the virus is still lurking in the environment and so it is still a threat for people in

west africa. according to the u.n. ebola infected 28,000 people and killed 11,000 in west africa alone. the vaccines are tested on chim pan seas known to carry it in the wild and some have a natural immunity against ebola but a third of the chimps died of the virus, scientists still don't know how the virus jumped to humans. the outbreak has generated fear and an unprecedented global response. it has also brought west africans closer together, the battle against ebola is one they see as their own. and so far the vaccine they are testing is working. nicholas hawk, al jazeera, dekart. belgium police arrested two people because of landmarks in the capitol and took place after house searchs in brussels and the region and as well as in liage and police say i.s.i.l. propaganda and computer material

were found but no weapons or explosives were seized and belgium has been on high alert since the november paris attacks that killed 130 people. thousands of homes in the british city of york are without power after flood damage and this is what the devastation looks like right now. the crucial york flood defense failed a day after christmas and the flood barrier was raised which resulted in the unprecedented flooding. hundreds of soldiers are moving people from their homes and prime minister cameron visited and talked about flood defenses. al jazeera investigation into performance-enhancing drugs remains in the spotlight and involves a farm sister who was interns in an anticlinic in the united states and told an under cover reporter that they shipped an under cover growth hormone to the wife of a star peyton manning and one point of contention are the dates that charlie sly worked at the clinic

in the state of indiana and deborah has the report. >> reporter: when our under cover athlete collins first met charlie sly as part of al jazeera's investigation sly immediately demonstrated his knowledge of drugs, offering liam an anabolic ban in sport. over the next 12 days in seven different meetings and more than 27 hours of recorded conversations sly gradually opened up about his contacts with athletes, statements he now denies. his most controversial allegation is that when he did part of his pharmacy training at an antiaging clinic in indianapolis human growth hormone was shipped to peyton manning's wife. >> all the time we are sending ashley manning drugs like growth hormone all the time, everywhere, florida, never under payton's name and always under her name. >> reporter: since then the clinic has claimed sly was only there in 2013 after the mannings

moved away to colorado, not 2011 as al jazeera originally reported. now al jazeera is releasing the phone call we made almost a month ago to confirm the dates of sly's rotation. >> thank you very calling the guyer institute of molecular medicine, this is heather can i help you. >> i need to do employment verification on a gentleman called charles sly, he is a pharmacist and i believe he did a rotation with you, is that right, do you know him? >> yes. >> can you give me the precise dates. >> i can, it will be just a minute. >> thank you. >> uh-huh. remain on the line. a representative will assist you momentarily. >> the start date we have where we find for him is 10-17 of 11. >> sorry 10-17 of 11 okay and do you know how long he stayed with you? >> i think it was a couple months like three months maybe. >> great, all right that is great and sounds like you know

him then. >> yes, i knew him when he was here. >> reporter: that was a month ago. now dr. dale guyer who never responded to al jazeera's request for comment says charlie sly has fabricated his whole story. sly says everything he said when he didn't know he was being recorded was untrue. peyton manning has issued his own angry denial saying he has never used performance-enhancing drugs. however, the allegation in the program, the growth hormone was shipped from the guyer clinic to ashley manning has not been denied by either peyton manning or the clinic. that leaves several key questions to be answered, was growth hormone shipped to ashley manning and if so over what period and in what quantitys and can they confirm ashley manning does not suffer front any of the three serious medical conditions which it's legal to prescribe

growth hormone. if she does not it raises the question has the guyer institute broken the law? deborah davis, washington. for the latest news and analysis you can always head to our website, the address is on your screen, it's al jazeera.com. david schuster in for al ali velshi. "on target" tonight. big stars are rushing to the aid of peyton manning. how teams build brand-new stadiums and get taxpayers to pay bill. tonight the ten ver broncos are playing monday night football and shuttling to get the lathest off the press news of peyton mannin