tv News Al Jazeera March 18, 2016 3:00pm-3:31pm EDT
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saudi-led attack that killed 100 in a market this week. and brazilian police use water cannon to clear the streets in a rally in sao paulo. >> now, the most wanted fugitive from the paris attacks, sala abdu salaam has been arrested in mollenbeck. tweeted, "we got him." 130 people were killed. his fingerprints were found in an apartment that was raided earlier this week. let's bring you the latest pictures coming to you from brussels. they show a man being arrested. and dragged into a car by sple
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police. these are pictures, from, earlier. white sweatshirt many scarf, being drakd by police into the car. dragged by police into a car. he was shot in the leg during this afternoon's police operation. so there you can see some of the latest conspires which could be abdeslam, heavily armed police raided the apartment in mollenbeck. heard several exchanges of gun five surrounding the apartment block. reporters say white smoke was seen rising from the rooftop. natasha butler is in the area, natasha, a lot of activity in the area, police and sniffer-dogs around.
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>> reporter: that's right, i mean there's still a very heavy police presence. there are several police vehicles, police cars and behind me you could probably see several police officers and security forces. a bit earlier, we heard a couple of loud explosions a couple of seconds apart, just behind me. police broke through the cordon? this is arecordon.we have seen f activities over the past few hours. police operation still very much on the way -- underway i should say. what we have also heard is that a third suspect has been arrested. whether or not that suspect was arrested and that was connected to those explosions we heard we don't know. but very much an ongoing operation here, right in the heart of the bell january capital. >> it's an on going operation as you say, and we mustn't forget,
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by looking at the pictures behind you, these streets, you probably have all sorts of people seemingly transformed. we mustn't forget this is a residential area. what information are people giving people that live in this neighborhood? >> reporter: that's right. what you need to know is this area of mollenbeck is right in the heart of belgian capital. it is a regular area, a residential area, perhaps a bit of an underprivileged area but t shops up the street you might be able to see and suddenly a whole part of it has been cordoned off. and one of europe's most wanted has been found right here. you can imagine, the reaction of people here is shock, salah
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abdeslam so be found in mollenbeck in a place he knew, connected to the november 13th attacks because several of the attackers had linked to this area, had lived here at some point. police had raided this area several times over the last few months. so the fact that salah abdeslam a person missing for last four months was found here almost under the police noses had come to slok to th shock to the loca. a man next to me quite upset because he is not allowed by police to go up the street where he told us a bit earlier he actually lived here. >> yes, there will be certainly a concern and frustration in that neighborhood right now. natasha butler, thanks so much. bringing us the latest from mollenbeck, the scene now. if we look at salah abdeslam's background, 26-year-old french national living in the mollenbeck area, on the run
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since the paris attacks on november 13th. he and three other men were stopped in a vehicle near the bell januarbelgian area, but lo. he and others be rented another car and reserved two hotel rooms outside paris before the attacks took place. his brother ibrahim was one of the paris attackers who died after blowing himself up. i'm joined now by paul brennan. he spent time in mollenbeck following the investigation of the paris attacks. paul, we have some footage of a man we don't know his identity being dragged by police into a car. >> yes, i've had a chance to look a little bit more detail at this footage. it's impossible to confirm whether or not it is salah be
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abdeslam. the person confirmed by police officers, they are pointing the automatic rifles at the suspect. he appears to be injured in the leg. he is limping. his right leg is not supporting his weight. and that if you put the to twoagtwotogether, might make yoe that individual is salah abdeslam. he's keeping that right leg up. that would indicate that perhaps, of the two people that we knew had been arrested at that phase of the operation the person we are seeing in the video there is salah abdeslam. but as i say no confirmation from the authorities. >> what we see in those pictures seem to be consistent with reports that abdeslam suffered from a leg injury and of course, police would be very careful about the information that they
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communicate. because things are still ongoing. what do we know about what might have happened afterwards? reports now that abdeslam might be in hospital treated. >> with a leg injury he would of course have to be treated. they want to make him no, sir comfortable but certainly healthy as they can, because they want to question him and question him at great detail. i believe there will be a press conference with the brussels prosecutor. details will be released at that point we are hopeful. loud bangs were heard from the vicinity half past 3:00 gmt, three or 4:00 local time. there were reports that a third person, two initial arrests and a report of a third person maybe hold up in the apartment where police went to raid. reports now the person arrested.
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those two loud bangs may be associated with that. i hope, we expect that the brussels prosecutor will give us more details about that. because the latest live pictures as you can see, seem to show that a degree of relative calm has now descended on that area. police are standing to attention, there is clearly alert, but they don't seem to be rushing around anymore. control has been established in that particular street. and i think that the vast majority of the operation of course there will be follow-up searches but the vast majority of the arrest phase of the operation now appears to be over. >> as you say perhaps over the most challenging part of the operation heavy security presence there but not as much activity as you are seeing before. paul, thanks so much. paul brennan keeping an eye for us. now joined by al jazeera's jacky rowland, joining us on the phone. you are in mollenbeck, tell us what you are seeing and what's happening in the area around you
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at the moment. >> at the moment, the street is still be cor cordoned off. police wearing bataclavas, as we have layered there are a total of three people arrested, salah abdeslam has been wounded in the leg and taken to the hospital where clearly he will be held under close surveillance until he is at a position to face interrogation. and a further two suspects have also been arrested we understand. at the moment, the street is still closed off, still police in the area, clearly they will be interested to find out what other evidence there may be in the apartment. they will have to proceed with caution, of course, to get ballistic evidence, sphren sickc evidence,fully kind of evidence
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they can piece together the picture how the paris attacks could be carried out and who is still out thereinvolved in planning or executing them. >> i suppose the most important thing about all of this jacky is that salah abdeslam who is thought to be involved in the paris attacks in fact thought to play a key role in engineering everything that took place in november has been captured today alive. >> that is absolutely crucial because obviously he is the only one who was there, as far as we know on the flight of november the 13th who is still alive. the other attackers were either shot by police or blew themselves up when special forces went into the bataclan concert hall. so the ability to actually apprehend a suspect live, is very important because he will have a repository of information. how much of that information will he divulge, how long it
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will take police to get the information out of him and the methods they seek to do so, is another question. here is someone alive there on the night of november the 13th who knew other attackers who clearly have intimate knowledge of the planning, what other connections there may be with other countries in europe, or further afield, what commands if any there wesh were, what linkse were with al qaeda in syria, helping the police not only in attacks of november the 13th but crucially try oglean intelligence to forestall any other attack, to carry out attacks. >> yes, exactly, salah abdeslam will be very valuable to police and intelligence in figuring out what transpired before the attacks in november and find out whether perhaps something else was planned as well, jacky and you covered the paris attacks
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when the story broke. i know you've literally just jumped on a train and you headed straight there to mollenbeck. but what is reaction in france likely to be to this? >> well, obviously, in france, the more people who can be put out upon, the better. that said, there are still operations going on, maybe not a daily basis, but there are hundreds of operations which have been carried out in recent months. search operations, special operations which are permitted under the state of emergency which is still in force throughout france. this gives police special powers to carry out search rations, special powers to stop and search anyone who they think might be suspicious, special powers to survey people, tap telephones, intercept electronic
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communications, hold people under house arrest, all these methods have been put under play in the past few months. a lot of these situations will be brought to nothing and people will be released in a matter of hours but obviously any lead has to be followed up. the police can't really assume that any lead is innocent and they can't dismiss people as fantasies. because what could be a fantasy or an idea one day might turn into a concrete plan in the future. >> yes, and no doubt, intelligence services may be under a great deal of pressure. there has also been criticism what they may have done and how they responded to the attacks in paris. >> above all, the criticisms that we've heard have been of the fact that it took so long to parenthesis salah abdeslam, there have been criticisms about
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intelligence failings run up to the attacks, information about movement across europe and invitations that maybe police forces and intelligence agencies from differently parts of europe has not been as efficient in sharing information as possible, making assumptions that maybe things weren't important or weren't significant, whereas had it transpired they were. but crucially in the hours directly after the attacks people have been asking how is it that europe's most wanted man whose picture has been slashed across europe could travel across paris into brussels, on the night of the 13th and the 14th, could actually be stopped at a roadblock and allowed to progress. there were occasions when the police felt they had located him, waited hours to carry out the raid, when the raid happened, no evidence of salah
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abdeslam. visible evidence of close coordination between french and bell jam police, and the raid on the neighborhood which appeared to have led to the raid on friday in mollenbeck, that raid was conducted by a joint unit comprised french and belgian police officers, both french and belgian police officers were injured in that raid when the police in the apartment opened fire on them. that was a clear demonstration to the extent those security forces and intelligence agents have been working hand in hand every since. >> jacky, we'll get back to jacky a little bit later on. jacky rowland our correspondent has just reached the mollenbeck area in brussels where salah abdeslam, one of the main suspects in the pairs attacks in
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november in which 140 people have been killed, there is report he is captured and reports suggest is he being treated for that leg injury in hospital. as you can see the scene in mollenbeck suggesting there is still a police and security presence on the street, vehicles, sniffer dogs, but now you can see there is a cordon also in place. so things perhaps called down a little bit but nevertheless, security still in the area and residents being restricted in terms of where they can go. all right let's just take you through our top stories, remind you of our breaking news this hour. the most wanted fugitive from the paris attacks, salah abdeslam has been readied in a shootout in brussels. officials tweeted, we've got him. wanted since november paris attacks. this was the scene as heavily armed police raided the apartment in mollenbeck.
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reporters say white smoke was seen rising from the rooftop of the apartment area. human rights activist and a spokesperson for the collective against islamophobia in france. joins me now. can you give me your reactions to these happenings today? >> at least i would like to highlight the difference between the belgian police and the french police, at least they will be able to get some answers to so many of our questions. the french police they killed every single one of them. we have so many answers for them that nobody can answer them and we have only speculation about that. so this time we have someone who's alive and let's see where we go from here. >> and what are some of the things that you want to know the answers to? what would you like in terms of getting more clarity around what
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took place in november? what are you watching for now? >> the why, how they got there, who hired them, who gave them all these -- who gave them orders, how they got organized, where the french government and the european intelligence communities famed so far, to know at least their whereabouts before the attacks and after the attacks, so at least we can have some information to put in place a prevention strategy. something so far not existing in france. >> could you talk to me a little bit about the impact can paris s attacks had on the french society and the different communities in france from the people you have been speaking to and you have contact with? >> the attacks themselves were a trauma for the whole country. don't forget 130 people got killed in one single night. then we went through various days of being knocked out and not knowing exactly what was
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happening. and then of course, the government acted in the way they shouldn't have by implementing state sponsored retaliatory targeting the muslim community holding them responsible. i'm not saying this out of my mind but by asking the various victims we are assisting who have been raided humiliateunder state of emergency. and so far the government is still deaf and doesn't want to listen. that even according to you're intelligence communityourintelle secretary-general for national security and defense, they are all for the government to have a clear preventive strategy including local organizations and human rights organization else. organizations. since the government keeps talking about the muslim religion we ask the question, how come every single muslim organization has been kept aside and not actually consulted on
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how best to prevent the attacks. >> right, so i mean, at the same time, you can understand how the impact that these attacks had, as you say yourself, it was traumatic for the whole country. and it is now i suppose one of the challenges is to make sure that it doesn't generate more suspicion, more division. but you can see why the police have had to take some of the action that perhaps you know going into neighborhoods, having to question certain people. i mean from the communities that you're involved with is there a sense of not acceptance but acknowledgment that to some extent you are going to have to communicate with these guys, and cooperate with them to an extent to sort of catch anyone amight be planning something? >> well, what you think right now from the government actually from the attacks and from even before that is not to take
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action. but to take concrete and the necessary action he, humiliating and correlating families and ransack mosques, it is counterproductive and it must fuel the resentment on so many of these youths. to give you an example of the blackened failure of our inter-terror strategy, so far 3400 raids have been carried in mosques, homes, restaurants and muslim business he. only four inquiries have been opened directly related to terrorism. in the meantime, we have huge social cast, traumatizing families, parading them in their underwear and handcuffs, the weakest moom among those, in wht state are they going to grow up?
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they actually resent our society and want to act against it. if you take for example the latest report or internal report from the mi-5, take for example the arguments you used by antiterror judge, terrorism starts with a feeling of rejection, when you feel you are no longer part of the community. and so far the government has done exactly that. you know, secluding a whole population in france, holding it responsible, and every single time the government speaks about terrorism, it is somehow linked not to islamism but to the muslim community. >> thank you very much, it was really good to get your thoughts on that p joining us from paris and of course we'll continue to stay across all these developments for you. one of the other big stories that we have been following. turkey and the eu have clumped a new deal otrclimpleda new deal .
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to try stop the flow of refugees from the middle east. neave barker has the story. >> reporter: a situation that has shaken the very foundation of the european union. turkey has now agreed to play a crucial part in stemming the flow of refugees into europe. >> turkey will be getting all those who are crossing to aegean islands illegally, but meanwhile, european countries will receive the same number of legal mieg rarnt migrants from . this is a fair step for turkey
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as well. >> some think this agreement is a silver bullet but really is more complex. it is one pillar of the european strategy and can work only if the other pillar is also implemented. >> for each pieg rant returned, one syrian migrant will be resettled in the eu. in return, turkey is asked to double amount of aid to $6.7 billion. turkey wants a visa free travel for its citizens in the eu. this could happen as early as june. come into force as early as mid nigh sunday. all migrants will be processed and returned to turkey after that. under the agreement as many as 72,000 rfertion coul72,000 mrgse
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eligible for settlement. discomfort among eu states who are worried about returning refugees back to a country they say has a consequently attitude towards civil liberties and human rights. >> this agreement will violate human rights and international treaty on human rights. and for moral and political perspective you cannot exchange money with people to control the refugee flows without providing the proper medical assistance, proper training and access for refugees, to the labor market. it will be actually be nothing. >> reporter: outside the eu turkey summit here in brussels there was a demonstration by protesters, condemning the campaign in the southeast of the country. the eu has accused turkey of
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using disproportionate force to outlaw the pkk, but when it comes to reducing the number of people in urine the eu needs turkey on side and turkey knows it has a powerful role to play. neave barker, al jazeera, brussels. >> more than 1700 my rants and d people smugglers have been detained, by gendarmery on friday off lesbos. mainly african migrants were in at least six different boats. the united nations is warning the flow of migrants and refugees to europe is on track otop a million this year. deal between eu leaders and turkey doesn't appear to hold any relieve to the refugees
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trapped between greece and macedonia. the german chancellor is urging them to have better understanding. mohammad adow reports. >> preparing beds for refugees, every tent here will hold 60 families. >> everyone won't be able to sleep in those big tents, no. they will still hold people that will be sleeping in small tents, in the mud. >> reporter: upwards of 10,000 people are trapped here. with the borders close to them they know they will be here for a long time. greek families living near the camp are coming to their aid. this family has taken into their home five syrian families. >> translator: what they did
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is cruel and inhumane. closing the borders is unacceptable. they trapped these people in terrible conditions. babies, families and the disabled too. >> reporter: the refugees believer europe has the capacity to deal with their plight. they say what's happening in this camp is the result of policy decisions. the european union's refugee deem with turkey entered into on friday, offers little relief, puts the emphasis on stopping the flow of refugees from turkey to greece. >> translator: we didn't come here to live in camps. we came to live with the europeans, find a future. education for our children. and jobs for ourselves. >> the eu turkey deal dictates that refugees landing next week will be deported back to turkey. they will then be placed at a back of a waiting list to legally seek asylum in europe. but question whether it will work or even if it's legal.
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mohammad adow, al jazeera, idome informationi, greece. antigovernment demonstrations are continuing in brazil, one day after dilma rousseff brought lula da silva back into the government. protest against lula da silva's return to government. his supporters are holding a rally and the former president is expected to attend. our correspondent daniel schweimler is joining us. there have been scuffles between lula's supporters and those against him. tell us what supporters are saying now. >> i'm in the center of
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