the news continues next live from london. keep it here. ♪ the u.s. bombs isil targets in libya, killing as many as 40 people. ♪ hello, you are with me david foster. you are watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up in the next 30 minutes. there is anger in uganda has police arrest the main opposition candidate for the third time this week. [ explosion ] the fighting between turkey and kurdish fighters hurts efforts to bring peace to syria. and we look at whether the

space tourist industry is actually taking off. ♪ the united states has carried out multiple air strikes in libya, targeting fighters aligned with isil, that is the islamic state of iraq and the leva levant. he have killed a man accused of helping organize attacks in tunisia. let's go to my colleague rosiland jordan joining us live from washington, d.c. i know we're expecting to hear pretty soon on camera from the state department. what have you heard from them so far? what are they saying about what

happened in libya? >> reporter: well the state department has been putting all of the questions to the pentagon and the spokesperson there, peter cook, should be briefing any moment now, david. what we are expecting to hear him expand on is the statement from the past hour, which he said the u.s. believes but can't confirm that the isil leader in libya was apparently killed in this air strike. pentagon courses have told al jazeera that two u.s. air force f15-e's screaming eagle fighter jets left the u.k. and carried out these air strikes west of the capitol tripoli. there are multiple reports indicating that at least 30 at this training camp were killed, perhaps as many as 50 people. we may get more incite from

peter cook in the next few minutes about the success of these air strikes. however, it is important to stress, david, that the u.s. has long been concerned about isil establishing a toehold inside libya, especially given the ongoing political instability there, and it has said, and peter cook said in a statement earlier on friday, that the u.s. is prepared to go after isil to prevent it from doing just that. >> yes, it is defense department, not state department, we're expecting to hear from. but what do you know about the cooperation of the libyan authorities in this? libyan authorities as they are, because it's a pretty fractured country. >> reporter: well, we don't know whether the libyan government, the in coming unity government actually signed off on this -- this u.s. military operation. the obama administration has been very, very plane that even though it has been anticipating and wants to carry out these

sorts of air strikes, that it didn't want to do so unilaterally, without a government actually in place in tripoli, so what we have seen in recent days have been a number of statements coming from the state department in particular, stressing that the u.s. is very much supportive of the efforts for the two sides in the libyan political space to unify and form this government, and so that if and when the u.s. decided it was prepared to launch these sorts of air strikes, that it could have the political cover of a sovereign government, giving the u.s. permission to carry out these air strikes on its territory. you contrast that with the situation in syria, where the u.s.-lead coalition is conducting air strikes without the consent of the president of that country, the u.s. is very sensitive to doing this in countries in the middle east, because of the fear that it may be accused of -- of trying to overtake independent states.

>> rosiland thank you very much indeed. i'm just going to show you, our viewers a brief shot of the department of defense, pentagon, waiting for that area of government to give its thoughts on what -- happened in libya. we'll be back with that as soon as it happens. ♪ turkey's asking the united states to clarify its stand on syrian kurdish ypg fighters. turkey blames the ypg for wednesday's attack on ankara that left several people dead. from the turkish syrian border, zana hoda reports. >> reporter: intense artillery shelling across the border.

turkey is targeting positions of the ypg. the government says it has evidence a suicide car bomber who targeted a bus of soldiers on wednesday was a ypg member, and that he received help from the pkk inside turkey. >> translator: we have critical data on who is responsible for this attack. turkey is facing an attack organized by the pkk and ypg once again. turkey's friends should stand with turkey to fight all terrorist organization. >> reporter: security is increasingly a concern in turkey. the bombing in ankara wasn't the first. and since july the southeast of the country has been a battleground between security forces and pkk affiliates. turkish officials want their western allies to sever their links with the syrian kurdish fighters. >> translator: the u.s. must clarify its stance on terrorism, washington's statements are conflicted on the ypg. it's a sign of weakness to act with a terror organization like

the ypg, in the fight against daesh. >> reporter: but on the ground the u.s. continues to provide air cover to the ypg and its ally, the syrian democratic forces as they push deeper into isil-held territory in syria's eastern province the kurdish fighters are closing in on a main supply route that isil uses to move between its strong holds in syria and neighboring iraq. >> it's not about choosing sides here. there's no doubt about turkey's membership in the coalition. obviously there's no doubt about our commitment to a fellow nato ally, and there's also no doubt that some of the strongest fighters against daesh inside syria have been kurdish fighters. >> reporter: but they have not only been taking territory from isil, in recent weeks, they have also been taking ground from opposition groups backed by turkey. for turkey that is a red line.

ankara wants to prevent further ypg advances, particularly in aleppo's northern corridor close to its border. ankara considers that a threat to its national security and has made clear it will take all of the necessary measures to preslent this. it also wants its western allies to stand by them in this fight. if for now turkey's options are to continue the cross-boarding shelling and continue to provide support. the west has signaled it won't back turkey's call for grand operation inside syria, and the u.s. has signaled that it won't choose sides. the escalating tensions are straining long-time alliances and complicating an already difficult process aimed attending syria's war. zana hoda, al jazeera, southern turkey. and now russia which is carrying out air strikes inside syria is demanding, and i believe it has, as we go to the nation and daniel lack there, a

meeting of the security council within a few hours, or later on today, daniel, because it is worried about what turkey is doing or what it says turkey could do do, is that right? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. russia requested an ur gebt meeting of the security council, and that will take place approximately three hours from now. it will be a closed session. and the russian statement said it was concern over turkey's declared plans for an operation inside of syria. it's important to point out that turkey hasn't quite said it so explicitly, they did say they reserved the right to take any measures. obviously that leaves a lot of open ground, but russia has said that's the reason it needs to talk to the security council on this. there's no talk of a resolution. and it is the second urgent meeting on this issue in syria that russia has requested this week. the earlier one was to do with the turkish shelling that took place on tuesday, and that didn't result in a great deal.

i think russia probably tried to get some sort of concern expressed by the security council, but mostly it was just consultations if you will by security council members. for all of the reasons that my colleague zana hoda was reporting there, the strains within the alliance that has come together around syria are really showing, and this is just the latest example of that. >> daniel lak, thank you. main opposition candidate in uganda's presidential election has been arrested for the third time this week. kizza besigye was detained in a raid on his party's headquarters. police fired tear gas outside of the headquarters. some polling stations are still open after election papers arrived too late on thursday, leaving people unable then to cast their votes. these are the results so far. votes from 37% of polling

stations accounted. so far the president looks set to extend his 30-year rule. he has 62%. mr. besigye has 33.5%. and the former prime minister and close ally of mr. museveni before they fell out has just 1.7%. let's hear from malcolm webb. >> reporter: opposition leader kizza besigye, and some of his party officials called press to their party headquarters. they wanted to announce some provisional results from their tallying center. they say this is because the electoral commission's tallying center and its results are rigged. they deny it. they say that museveni is in the lead. the opposition say that besigye is in the lead. police came and fired tear gas

and broke up the meeting. that prompted protesting in that neighborhood and surrounding areas, there was a heavy deployment of police, and tear gas and guns were fired to break up the crowds. the city remains tense as people are waiting to find out what will happen and if results from either side will be accepted. we're going to virginia now just across the river there from the white house, the pentagon, this is is department of defense talking about the american air rides on isil targets in libya. >> as you know this is not the first time we have taken direct action in libya. and it may not be the last. we will continue to target isil and its infrastructure wherever it exists, and when twunties such as this emerge, we will exploit them. we will work with our partners as much as possible. the u.k. offered the use of its bases for our arias sets.

we appreciate their support, and continued contributions from all of our coalition partners to destroy isil, and with that i would be happy to take your questions. bob? >> reporter: can you tell us more about this training camp. what kind of training was going on there? how long it has been established. and when you say they were planning external attacks, i think you said against u.s. interests, can you be more specific? on that continent? or somewhere else? in the u.s. or -- >> i'm not going to go into too much detail on the intelligence gathering. but this was a facility we had had our eye on for sometime. and we had determined there were isil fighters and folks in training at this facility, and specifically that he was associated with this facility in particular. and we saw that this -- we believed that they posed a threat. >> reporter: training are you talking about -- can you describe it in any other way?

>> i'm going to leave it -- we saw them conducting training. we again had been watching it for sometime, and -- >> reporter: months, weeks? >> i'll say in the order of weeks that we had had eyes on this particular facility. yes, jim? >> reporter: peter without getting too specific about what those western u.s. interests were, can you define u.s. interests? in other words these apparently were not u.s. or even western targets, but interests? what does that mean? >> jim we have a national security interest in confronting the threat that isil proposes. and we have been -- we have shown a willingness to go after isil in libya in the past, and we did so in this instance, because we felt that, again, this group, and this particular individual who had -- was named as a suspect previously in an

attack in tunisia posed, again, a threat to libya specifically, to interests in the region, and posed a national security threat to the united states. >> reporter: how so? >> we see isil -- we and hear isil every single day, threatening the united states. we see what is happening in iraq and syria. and we believe that these fighters in libya posed a threat to our national security interests. >> reporter: so in other words wherever isis, lives, breathes, and trains, they are a target for possible u.s. air strikes? >> we have made clear we need to confront isil wherever it rears its head. they have posed a direct threat to the united states. they have encouraged attacks to the united states and our allies, and we're going to continue to confront it to protect our national security, and this was an instance where we saw an opportunity to strike

at isil in labia, and we carried out that strike. and we feel confident in the strike. >> a successful strike says peter cook. ros you brought us up to speed on what they had been saying in paper. we heard from peter cook. they regarded this training camp as a threat to u.s. national security. >> reporter: yes, peter cook is alleging that this training camp was being used to plan attacks against the u.s. and u.s. interests. although he is not being exactly forthcoming in terms of detailing. now the briefing is just getting underway, david, and so he may actually have to explain more detail about what the actual threat is from this training camp. this is of course, the first time that the u.s. public and indeed the international public is hearing about this training

camp, and about the u.s. allegations that it was engaged in some sort of serious plotting against the u.s. or u.s. interests. so it again -- this briefing is just getting underway, and it will be very telling to reveal just exactly how much evidence the u.s. is willing to put forward for the justification for this strike. he did talk about the leader who was alleged to be involved in the attack on the museum in tunisia earlier last year, and he basically said we saw an opportunity and we decided to take it. >> ros thank you. they are looking for much more information on what constituted u.s. national security, then i think mr. cook is going to stone wall them, but thank you. thank you very much. rosiland jordan there. coming up on this program, will he say or will he go in we'll have all the latest as david cameron tries to secure a

deal for britain to stay in the european union.

♪ the top stories now. the united states has carried out air strikes in libya. the pentagon spokesman said the attack killed a top isil co commander. turkey is hitting kurdish fighters in syria after wednesday's attack in the capitol ankara. the turkish government says the

ypg is responsible. but a group called the freedom hawks says it was behind the attack. the opposition candidate in uganda has been arrested for the third time in a week. egypt's president says he will propose new laws to curb abuses of power by the security services. this comes a day after the police shot and killed a young taxi driver, which lead to protests. the officer in question has now been detained, but this is just the latest in a strength of incidents of alleged police brutality. >> reporter: picking up a police officer as a passenger proved fatal for this taxi driver. he was just 24 years old. according to the egyptian interior ministry. the police officer shot and killed him by mistake after an argument over payment. but the thousands who gathered for his funeral don't believe

the official version of events. they blame the security forces who they say act with impunity. witnesses to the killing say the police officer verbally abak abused mohamed and when the objected the officer shot him. >> translator: i want the government to bring me justice. the president himself. why would this policeman shoot my son? what was he guilty of? is the president happy? we elected him to represent us and protect us. not to let these criminals kill us. he needs to stop him and every corrupt policeman must face justice. >> translator: all they care about is to rob us. as long as there is chaos, no one will get justice. enough is enough. every day one of us gets kill. why doesn't the government send an official to attend our funerals? because we are poor. we are nobody. >> reporter: last week thousands

of doctor pros tests after two colleagues said they had been assaulted by police, because they wouldn't falsify medical records. >> reporter: human rights groups say egyptian security forces often act above the law and are rarely put on trial. when trials do take place, sentences are usual reduced on appeal. >> i remember two years ago mr. sisi was addressing men in uniform and he encouraged them to use excesstive use of violence among civilians, and promised that nobody will be punished. >> reporter: many believe this has lead to a culture of hostility. it appears the security forces are still to be feared. britain's prime minister appears to be digging in for the

long haul in brussels trying to convince other e.u. leaders to change the u.k.'s terms of membership of the union. he had hoped to be home briefing his cabinet on the terms of the deal, which will be put to the british people in a referendum. but he says he is now happy to stay until sunday. angela merkel warned that reaching an agreement with all 27-member states will not be easy. austria has started imposing its new quota system for refugees. it says it will allow no more than 80 asylum seekers a day as of friday. the e.u. says they have an obligation to accept any asylum

application in his territory. there has been an explosion in cameroon. it is not known who has carried it out, but it is the latest of a string of incidents suspected to be the work of boko haram. india's supreme court has referred the case of a student union leader awaiting trial on charges of sedition back to a lower court. it has followed days of protests across the country. here is our correspondent in new delhi. he is in judicial custody until march 2nd. he has been accused of holding an event at his university in which anti-indian slogans were

allegedly used. he is facing charges of sedition. students at the university have boycotted classes and held protests in support of the student. opposition party and free-speech activists are linking the crackdown on students to what they say is a rising tide of intolerance. the protests have spread across the country, despite warnings from government ministers that any anti-indian sentiment will not be tolerated. the biggest march took place on thursday with thousands taking to the street. students, academics, and people from all walks of life took part. but the bail plea has dwroet be heard after violence disrupted proceedings on monday and

wednesday. in fact on wednesday he himself was assaulted on his way to the courthouse despite being flanked by police. his lawyers have lodged a bail application saying that they fear for his life. how long will it be before tourists can send a postcard from space? spaceship companies are working hard to make it happen as soon as possible. here is tarek bazley. >> reporter: you might never have considered taking in this the view from the cloud nine observatory on venus travelling to jupiter to see the might aarrows a, or exploring the possibility of life on a moon. nasa is hoping these postcards will get us thinking about taking a trip into space. and a number of companies have been working on that first step.

this replaces an earlier model that broke apart and killed a pilot in 2014. virgin promises passengers a ride that will take them beyond the internationally recognized boundary of space, once there they will get a few minutes of weightlessness. x-core is also selling tickets for flights. it has made advances on engage technology, but hasn't said when it will start to fly. another contender is world view. it is developing balloon trips which will take passengers 26 kilometers above the earth. with some of this spacecraft eventually the flights will be orbit tall, you just go up or down and land more or less in

the same place, but in a few years we will be able to go in order around the earth and perhaps to build space stations which will be accommodating like a space hotel if you would like. >> reporter: even if you do dream of space travel it might be the cost of the ticket that holds you back, while one businessman paid about $20 million in 2001. virgin's tickets are going for a quarter of a million. ex-core is charging 150,000, and the balloon wide is $75,000. but you might want to hold off until the technology has actually been proven before you book your next trip into space. harper lee has died at the age of 89. she was a reclusive writer who only published two books in her lifetime. best known for "to kill a mocking board," a second book

featuring the same characters was published 55 years later in july of last year. she died in alabama just a few miles from where she grew up. aljazeera.com for a great deal more on all of the world's news. aljazeera.com. remembering a supreme court justice, antonin scalia lies in repose at the highest court in the land. new attacks, american aircraft strike isil posts in libya. the final push, the g.o.p. storms south carolina while the democrats try their luck in nevada and a driving danger, the tens of thousands of failing bridges across the country. ♪