his border with syria and the sentiment from the international community is very much one of restraint and he's speaking about. strikes have already taken place on positions in. what more can you tell us about that charles. well sonny the artillery bombardment seems to be continuing very much in earnest we can hear what sounds like tenchi multiuse we've seen rockets being fired there are big ol tillery batteries close to here as well so this is very much an ongoing operation we're hearing some some recent develops in the last few minutes or so certainly from f.s.a. sources now these assaults these free syrian army so little sees inside syria who is saying that the white p.g. could fool sees so they're saying have targeted the town of kut

a commish which is inside to be a suggestion that obviously there seems to be some sort of retaliation or response from the white b.g. as i'm speaking now i can hear what sounds like heavy machine gunfire now they say it would be difficult to confirm impossible to confirm but would suggest the troops may in fact be moving forward and we might be beginning to hear the beginnings of a ground incursion we had as i say it's probably been about 56 hours now since the artillery bombardment reports of these air strikes started and we know that it's a fight is free syrian army fighters are going to be involved in this operation and they came in from syria in the last 24 hours or so. just as an update in terms of places that we've heard have been targeted as you say i mean a lot of the town of call bani to lobby out which is literally just behind me. a

line and i in at least we understand that at least one of the targets was certainly according to turkish media sources a weapons an s.p.f. kurdish weapons. and just interesting in terms of fealty to security in the immediate area. all the schools here have been closed down there's been an announcement will be closed for the next couple of days or so. very much the turks are keeping to their word saying that they want the international community that they saw peroration would go ahead and certainly as he spoke involvement continues we expect further developments obviously in the next few hours. all right thank you very much charles trafford brains on items from a colleague in tacky. well for more on this i'm joined by money director of the syria conflict research program in london school of economics and political science thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on this with us so we were just

speaking to child's there he says that obviously there have been as strikes there's been artillery fire are we likely to see this develop into a full blown incursion in which turkish troops actually do cross into north east syria in the coming hours it's not clear whether the troops themselves the troops will cross syria but certainly the syrian turkish sponsored group the so-called jaish and what the knee as in the national army with nothing national about it is going to cross the borders this is what turkey have done in other areas like enough rain they use these syrian armed groups as their tool rather than a turkish bank fighters as opposed exaggeratedly yeah if they go there themselves they we have responsibility as an occupier and they don't want to do so so they are staying with the borders they're shelling the area and they're sending their syrian fighters from what you heard through the course of the day is there a clear idea in ankara of the precise purpose of this operation and how long it's

likely to last no one knows how long it's going the longest but obviously they want to have this. puffery zone of syrian arabs on the borders to come of protect them you know from the syrian kurds how long those going to take we don't know but obviously it's going to need to lots of his creation a lot of blocked demographic change and people will be forcibly moved into that area to live in it when they actually wanted to go back to their or you know areas that they left what are the implications of a demographic change of that nature to have. kurds being well either killed or injured effectively. replaced by arabs i think the civil war their prior planning civil war this is this is more than just demographic engineering people

have lots of grievance and they're going to fight barack and i just don't see any good and thing to this they're playing with fire what about the syrian refugees those that have been internally displaced in the country that are currently living under s.d.f. control we're really talking about hundreds of thousands of families now what would a shift in territorial control mean for the sort of humanitarian infrastructure that is there for them. i mean there is already virtual circle and terms of her dinner infrastructure i just finished actually talking to them you know in in the area and they're just they're so full of fear a can't get over the voice i heard that they were just terrified they said we just don't know what to do we're suddenly so exposed all the men's are leaving but you know how easy that is as syrians that are living in northeast are exactly yeah both i spoke to be what russell lyon. and they were just the fear and the fear in their

voices it's just so terrifying to hear i spoke to one of my friends she is a lady she said i have 50 of my neighbors right now government here in my house we just don't know what to do all the men have left either to the fighting or to skip the area because the men a few are being or rest are taken and we're left on our own we're only women children and elderly and there is no one to protect us they did not even even those who left it in the the even leave us any missiles or what to do protect ourselves with terrified who is out there to protect us is the international committee going to do anything. is the u.n. going to send any troops. were or were going to do i have nothing to say to them all right thank you very much intent money and. i want to bring in some other stories we're following closely now in 2 people have been shot dead marijan in senegal shop in what authorities a calling an anti semitic attack attack coincides with a young capper of the holiest day on the jewish calendar the shooting took place in

the eastern city of holly gunfire was also heard in the nearby town of landsberg about 15 kilometers away it's not clear if the 2 are connected and the mother now reports. the video from a mobile phone might be shaky but it conveys just how calm the gunman is as he shoots down the street and holler. and watch how people take cover in the distance . i witness is a one woman a passer boy was shot near a synagogue the spokesperson for the local jewish community says an attacker trying to shoot his way into the synagogue where around 80 people have gathered all young kapoor the holiest jewish holiday and then threw a grenade into the cemetery next to it germany's foreign minister has tweeted it hits us in the heart that a synagogue was shot on the day of atonement we must all act against anti semitism in our country. elsewhere in the town one person was reportedly killed when

a turkish shop was attacked and was inside. because if you know how i was standing at the entrance and saw an elderly woman pass by and behind her there was suddenly this man wearing a helmet and military style clothes he was holding a gun and wearing a palak lover and then he tried to throw what looked like a hand grenade but it bounced off the door frame and exploded right in front of this elderly woman with a very loud bang and then he raised the gun and started shooting on. as police want people to stay indoors they confirmed they'd arrested one person. told we have at least 2 crime scenes one person died as a result of the shooting in the area of vocalist also and another one in the area of humboldt strasser we 1st received information that there was one terrorism suspect who was armed and have since been suggestions to the could have been more people involved but that's not confirmed at this point. the suspect was wearing

a head camera and the attacks were live streamed on the internet the gunman speaking english and german calls himself a holocaust denier also denouncing feminism and mass immigration he calls himself a loser after the synagogue attack doesn't go to plan before moving on to bicker about restaurants shooting was also reported in the town of landsberg 20 minutes drive from holland germany is trying to fight a resurgence of right wing a neo nazi extremism in recent years including the firebombing of synagogues the investigation into the higher attacks has now been taken over by federal antiterrorism prosecutors. and now protesters in ecuador have clashed with security forces in a 7th day of anti-government demonstrations thousands of indigenous people are on the streets in the capital kiev angry over fuel price hikes introduced by president lenin lorena roads are empty and businesses are closed right across the country as part of a one day strike against the austerity measures right now has refused to resign and

says he is negotiating with dozens of indigenous groups latin america and italy c. newman joins us live now from kill so clearly this is some of the worst unrest the country has seen for some years now you see how are the negotiations going between the government and these indigenous groups. hello marian they're going very very secretly that i could tell you in fact a few hours ago we were sitting down or about to have an interview with president martin or when we were told by his press secretary just 2 minutes before he was due to walk into the room that he had had to leave that something had come up and we understand he got on the plane and flew to keep all the political capital of ecuador as you may know he had moved the capital to why acting where we are now to avoid clashing with the demonstrators who are still there but apparently there are all these negotiations that are started overnight and they are continuing from what

we are told but without any of the details they are being are barred by the catholic church and by the united nations in the meantime there is these clashes continue not just in quito but in many parts of the country including here in guayaquil where we've been seeing running battles going on now for hours with opponents of the president who want him to withdraw the price hikes especially on on fuel that he announced a week ago which is what started these demonstrations while about. 100 meters from me to my left there are a lot of there's a long march of supporters of the government taking place so it's getting very volatile there's lots of riot police even the army is out here to try to keep the 2 groups separate mariyam right so. right so clearly from what you're saying news here the protests are widespread they're not just limited to the capital or where you are in killed what does this mean for the position of president because he has

so far defying calls to stand down he's refusing to do that. he has he has the news that repeated it that he won't stand down but he has also said that he would not be rescinded is very unpopular austerity measures that he had put in place but these talks are taking place right now and as i say we don't know exactly what the content is that it would seem to indicate that he is willing to make some sort of concession whether this will be enough to keep him in office is another story altogether right now the governor ability of ecuador is very much being put in question his ability to stay in office is in question if this continues the way it is right now thank you very much for kill latin america and italy soon human following that story for us in ecuador now in jail tunisian presidential candidate might be

a car we has been released just 4 days before the 2nd round runoff election has been behind bars since august accuse of money laundering and tax evasion media mogul came 2nd in the 1st round of tunisia's presidential elections last month. his party heart of tunisia also came 2nd in monday's parliamentary elections he was there as he arrived at party headquarters in the capital tunis. so he's out of his tie you can feel you can see here you can see him. over there. and this is exactly what he's trying to do now is once to tell that it is yours that's his word therefore that political moment and that you want to. leave behind him to live there when i was talking to his own people over the last few days they would tell you that's against the political divides into it is this could potentially be the white candidate to unite in his ears and fix the problems that the country faces. but at the same time he faces the delicate task

of convincing people to vote for him and i have to tell you that if that happens there would be a huge political upset here it is yet more now on developments in syria military sources telling al-jazeera that the turkish incursion has begun of course there was already a military operation underway but we now understand that there have been some troops crossing into the area let speeches in and pursue new on the phone from istanbul sinan what can you tell us. well larry i'm aware tools by the turkish officials of al jazeera that took issue military are cruel thing to syria the ground the friend says is about to begin so far since 4 pm circular local time it was the airstrikes buys after 16 jets and they hold the shelling on the rest

of us so i don't tell about and now the troops are causing to syria which means landing incursion begins so i must that was that turkish officials were stating that they were ready for everything all correct that lock them low there to launch this operation to establish a safe but it is good it is sooner than expected even the length incursion is happening fast because the operation only started a few hours ago and as turkish officials and the other 3 are trying to show that they are determined to combat this but the ration despite any refusal as well the u.s. or the u.s. diplomats from the area where it was a turkish operation is going to be come back that they have also been reports all of the s.e.'s s.d.f. of kut issue fight is responding to this which is which is no great surprise. is

that i mean is the technician military really prepared for the response they might get because there have been these reports of rockets being fired. yes look at city rockets have been fired to 3 turkish border towns and there are some. as some buildings were harmed but of course this was expected s.t.m. was loving that went turkey begins its attacks in not because syria they were there responding so this is not unexpected of course but one thing about the operation is very important that we don't know how this operation is going to fall because so far at least know that trump and i are gone are going to be with the grammar in washington so we've still there are negotiations underway and when you look at mosco who has allied with turkey in terms of us on the agreement and. the

escalation zones they are saying that they are willing to mitigate between the p y d and the syrian regime so turkey risks being left out alone and this military operation as it says the turks haven't been able to explain they are courses against against the y p g and it that the us has been arming the y p g a under the umbrella of the series they broke with 6 forces which turkey has always said is a risk so turkey doesn't know what kind of machinery or weaponry and then why p.g. owns right now and how much have been conceived during the fight against i still and let the left that how when you can't be directed to turkey and so this battle this military operation is going to be more complicated compared to the want to conduct the before as the euphrates to go to operation and the all of creation all

of branch because the area is much larger it's 8 times because than the previous air as and the ground the geographical conditions are different as well. also this is expected to. sort of resilience like the answer there but turkey is so crucial round that they are not targeting the kurds they are targeting the wifey to which the terrorist organization turkey wants but with the peace corps or thought that. it is something that millions of the syrians who are now living in turkey can't go back safe and sound to their country so now because soon with the latest thank you very much. so as you hearing valerie military sources are telling al-jazeera that the turkish

military incursion into north eastern syria is now on the way world leaders are calling on and quote to exercise restraint offered launched the operation to clear the area of kurdish fighters now present announced the decision on twitter he says that the aim is to eliminate a terror card all that's what that's how he describes it runs along turkey's southern border the kurdish led syrian democratic forces are saying that planes of several of its positions causing widespread panic and evacuations calls the codes have been key players in the fight against i still but on sunday washington and else it was putting all of its troops from northern syria an emergency un security council meeting has been called for by member states to discuss the incursion. well . we need peace and stability to be in syria we need to sort out the syrian crisis and we will hand these territories to their real owners and we came to take part in

all meetings and summits that aim at sorting out the syrian crisis this operation will be a source of peace and will bring peace and will sort out the syrian crisis in a radical way this operation lit by president receptive early on as one of the steps and one of the procedures among other steps taken by president for the sake of syria and for keeping the unity of syria. and all the headlines this out 2 people have been shot dead near synagogue in germany the interior minister has confirmed it was an anti-semitic attack coinciding with the poor the holiest day in the jewish calendar a shooting took place in the city of haifa but gunfire was also heard in the nearby town of landsberg about 15 kilometers away it's not clear if the 2 are connected and protesters in ecuador of clashed with security forces during a 7th day of anti-government demonstrations thousands of indigenous people on the streets of the capital angry over fuel price hikes introduced by president lenin the rayna roads are empty and businesses are closed as part of the one day strike

against the austerity measures right now has refused to resign and says he is negotiating with indigenous groups those are the headlines this hour the stream is coming up next. i have family ok and this is the street and i really could be a whistle blower's why do they risk it all we speak with author tom mahler whose new book serves that question and we want to hear from you you can tweet us at a.j. stream or leave a comment in our life you to chat and you'll also be in the street. my

name is catherine and i am there was a verb that was featured in the film the official secrets and you are in the street . from wall street to washington whistle blowers are speaking truth to power the most recent high profile cases sparked an impeachment inquiry into united states president donald trump's dealings with ukraine but what makes some people choose to speak out about wrongdoing while others remain silent joining us to discuss this in washington d.c. tom the author of crisis of conscience a whistle blowing in an age of fraud thomas drake a former intelligence analyst at the national security agency who blew the whistle on the agency's controversial surveillance program he lived in the u.s. but he's joining us from melbourne australia and in our studio and then back with can see is a corporate whistleblower who worked as a compliance officer at how the facts health systems insider for 20 years you'll

hear her story in just a moment however what it's good to have you here talk this book it's not a small book let me just show it to people how big it is you spoke to so many whistleblowers as you were getting this entire book together how did you do that how did you sit down and and put their stories together so that we get a really good sense of when we people whistle blow and what happens to them. i began by looking at one corner of whistle blowing false claims act whistle blowing which is corporate fraud and gradually as i talked with the people i began to get a sense of the sorts of people that do this in that area and then i began to realize that actually this is not just an island this is a continent of whistle blowing and i looked at other corporate whistleblowers and i looked the government was the lowest then i looked at national security was lawyers and in each and every case the personal dynamics of their their decision to act and the group dynamics of the group around them the toxic group doing illegality that

retaliated against them was very very similar so there became a kind of a whistleblower character that emerged from my work what is a risk. and then. someone willing to risk everything to do the right thing i think that's one of the things in the whistleblowers i have talked to the that's our common thread i think we're not willing to be silenced when we see something is wrong and that's what we hope everyone would want to do can you tell us the moment where you saw something wrong when you thought i have to do something about this so in my particular case i was a health care whistleblower and we had contracts with physicians that violated the stark law which is supposed to make sure physicians are admitting patients or doing clinical care for the right reasons and not for financial reasons so when our hospital i was director of physician services and we violated the stark law and

then realized that the hospital after telling them they were aware of it then they decided to pay anyway then i realized that you know i had to tell someone or i would be complicit to that fraud and just to be clear. so i don't need to don medical practice were done unnecessary they were being done for money yes so those were alleged allegations part of that case said old so it didn't go to court where you know so they're still considered alleged so that's what happens in settlements is not everything gets litigated and become public which is part of the hard thing even though it settles for a lot of money you don't know if it's corrected by evan your story reminds me of a video comment we got from someone else who talks about the reason that she had to do it this is sheila white a whistleblower for in an employment discrimination case and here's what she said

to the stream. recent actual scipio. treatment of retaliation in the us for the likes i speak out of the watts or to say i have to be. so tom that line i spoke out for people who couldn't speak out for themselves paraphrasing her there a little bit about something you see is the theme kind of a thread through the people that you've talked to over the course of this book absolutely she put in words exactly almost word for word but in what another whistleblower the whose case i looked into alan jones who blew the whistle both on johnson and johnson and major pharmaceutical companies and his own office the inspector general of pennsylvania for serious multi-state 1000000000 dollar wrongdoing he said i must speak up for those who are silent i must speak out for the people who are victims who have no voice use exactly the same terminology that's a kind of person who thinks about society and everyone in society as equal members

and equal members of the human race. back in $21518.00 plus did a very special interactive there were videos of the interviews all about thomas drake and what he did at the n.s.a. have a look can my laptop i'm just watching the very beginning of it it's very traumatic how that can let go then i am going to press play it's fair to say that if there had been a time straight there could have been. here we had a guy who did absolutely everything with. the place to save the system he saw you know the warrantless wiretapping of hundreds of millions of americans. saw the corruption in property he brought it to congress and ran them protecting him and they actively retaliated against him. thomas. that moment when you realize you had to do something what does that feel like as as an emotional something who's walking in an organization where you realize something is gone

horribly wrong. in my case you know my 1st day on the job reporting to my new duty station which was the number 3 person that had a say the signals intelligence directorate i quickly found out what my government was doing in secret you know under the cover of the failure to keep almost 3000 people out of harms way. and they did so under the blanket of national security and you what you say what does it feel like you don't wake up one morning and say i'm going to become a whistleblower but you're confronted by the stark reality of something gone terribly wrong and it was simply the case i could not remain silent because a writer meant sorry and i would have been complicit not only in the wrongdoing but this case a violation of the constitution the 4th amendment and privacy rights of millions of people are the highest what was the government up to and including the president but i knew that by doing so i was i was looking over

a cliff and i have my life was never going to be the same again show and i have to say that i just played of course if anybody didn't recognize that person as edward snowden when the whole n.s.a. whistle blowing just blew up a you with that before he was that say you paved the way and what you want to see next this week from our who says whistleblowers should always be given a right to undertake their activities appropriate laws should be in place to protect them and the information that they have obtained so someone else in our community wrote back this is media b.x. who says there is at least in the united states the whistleblower protection act of 1989 that was an act it to protect federal employees but it doesn't seem so efficient whistleblowers feel lonely isolated and paranoid that they could be targeted in the streets by anyone seeking retribution thomas for you were you thinking of the legal protections you might have what was going through your mind the ramifications of what the law might offer you well.

my eyes are wide open i was certainly not naive i had been serving the government in the past number of times and here i was the senior executive there were existing channels they call them. disclosure channels there will be protected against retaliation but there really expose are channels reporting on wrongdoing and violations of law committed by the highest levels of your own agency and in my case not just the agency but also the white house the president states the vice president you know the head of the national security agency they're not going to take too kindly to getting having someone even a senior as i was having them be exposed and so they're going to retaliate the problem is that these laws although they say and i was under the intelligence

community was our protection act also later with the department defense i g.'s act . it's supposed to protect you but there's not to protect you against retaliation and you are left extraordinarily exposed as the head so in my particular case my case is filed under the false claims act which also has a protection for retaliation and in my experience that's on paper because unless you're willing to file a lawsuit against the retaliation your work is going to tell you it's perceived any time you have a complaint so i don't think they work well at least not in my instance tomba had i could jump in just a little context let's remember that thomas drake was a multi-decadal servant of our nation. and and someone who had proven his patriotism time and time again he came forward under the specific guarantee of anonymity he spoke out through channels that were carefully laid out legally

protected in theory. but in practice of course it came it went from whistleblower protection to a whistleblower trap and both of these people are people who simply cannot remain silent while this while this is happening they have a greater loyalty and a greater sense of duty then to their individual bosses or to their teams they have a higher calling if you will and that calling cannot be silenced and both of them have said to me at one time or another thomas to me at one time when i had to look myself in the mirror every day i had to do what i did ellen calls her choice of a choiceless choice i have to i had to be able to put my kids to bed at night and i couldn't if i had not spoken up so essentially these are people with a with a conscience an individual conscience that forces them to act and thank god that they exist tom he you mentioned something interesting that i want to pick up on you

said the anonymity and there are people in our community that are talking about that point the named whistleblowers versus the unnamed so on you tube someone writing in live he says the real whistleblowers are the ones you never hear about so that's one person's view another person writing to us on twitter also picking up on that point how as if you blow a whistle on me i have every right to see you tom what's your take on that view an anonymous whistleblowing versus named whistleblowing. well 1st of all many legal regimes many laws guarantee anonymity so that last statement is not. follow every move come to al-jazeera live from london with our ongoing breaking news story from syria where military sources are now saying that turkey is starting an incursion into northeast in syria now this is all part of a major operation aimed at clearing the area of kurdish fighters will present

regime. was announcing the campaign and he actually announced that sit on twitter saying that its aim was to eliminate a quote terror corridor is how he described it along turkey's southern border the kurdish led syrian democratic forces are saying turkish will planes have bombed several of its positions causing widespread panic and evacuations the kurds have been key players in the fight against eisel but on sunday washington an ounce it was putting all of its troops out of northern syria couldn't go live now to that he's in cali on turkey's border with syria and so what can you tell us about the movement of troops into the northeast of the country. well certainly now the turkish defense ministry confirming that a ground incursion into syria has started i suppose it's about the last half an

hour or so that we have we've heard heavy machine gunfire and seen a lot of tracer fire behind us it's quite sustained and heavy clashes. that comes i suppose off to around about 5 or 5 hours of a big. bombardment we've heard what sound like large how it's a cannons being used guns being used relatively close to here we've seen rockets being launched and we knew that this ground invasion was going to his ground incursion into syria was going to happen but i think there's a lot of people here quite surprised as to how soon it's happened certainly seeing as this the artillery bombardment and these air strikes you know it's only been a safe 5 or 6 hours since they started now we don't know who we cannot confirm who's actually participating at this stage in this ground incursion it was some speculation of among military analysts that the turks were going to try and avoid

using their special forces or as many of their forces as they can try and avoid using them and use f.s.a. and how these are free syrian army they describe themselves as the national opposition army all of syria these these fighters would be supported for a long time since basically the beginning of the revolution in syria by we know that they came in to to yes they. believe that they will be participating in these ground operation we're having some reaction increasing reaction from the s.d.f. as well as full seize across the border according to according to one source they were saying a story a spokesperson for the u.s.d.a. if they said that said there had been turkey shelling in the vicinity of an icy spring isn't there a place called cheer to. you know of course this can be confirmed but this was a big fear of his a big fear of the international community. and. in terms of the

thousands of i still prisoners that are in these jails these s.t.'s jails that there were concerns that they could well escape now president trump has said the american president has said that he would complete responsibility for any breakout by all and so far it is off the wall can only really be described as a great success in defeating leisel in the same success that the s.d.f. with the coalition forces the coalition forces over recent years. were right at the forefront of of course with turkish help we're also hearing reports on the turkish media this is it's very difficult to confirm of course that the why p.g. forces have shelled the turkish town of new sabin which is right on the border as well so savingly there seems to be some sort of unconfirmed response by the city if

it's quiet spring the quiet now i suppose for the last sort of 510 minutes or so but a big development now that it's officially announced that this ground incursion by turkish forces has started. and charles really for a while now there has been a great deal of concern about what a u.s. withdrawal from this part of syria without a clear process or a k. a strategy would mean for cuds and syrians in ne in syria because it would leave them vulnerable to an attack either from damascus or from taki as we are now seeing given that it has developed into a ground invasion with troops going in how serious could the humanitarian consequences be. well this of course is the major concern and this is a heavily populated area here in north along lee's borders or you just

a matter of the sort of 1700000 people living in a fairly close proximity so. there are huge concerns about the kind of humanitarian impact of this military campaign i think the u.n. has has raised its fears saying that it can't hold at this stage guarantee humanitarian aid to what could well be you know thousands of people that would be fleeing from this area behind me further south in syria and we interestingly enough all the lights went out in the town of tel aviv which is behind me across the border i suppose about an hour off into the artillery bombardment we know that yesterday if had certainly according to a city of soldiers that we've spoken to across the border said that they had told people to stay in their homes the ferocity of the artillery bombardment and as i say in the last a half an hour or so heavy gunfire we've. can only be absolutely terrifying for the

many civilians inside syria in this area of course the turks have said that they are targeting s.t.'s forces and f.t.s. s.d.f. positions only and they have said that they will offer services and humanitarian aid to people as they push forward inside syria but a massive concern for the international community obviously condemning many of them condemning this this military campaign one of the worst humanitarian crises. for years now in syria and one can only imagine that he's going to put more strain on the international community to deal with to deal with those kind of humanitarian pressures as we go forward thank you charles traffic from a colleague. well as parts of being casion takesh forces have launched attacks on the syrian border town of ruston i took a shot tenor a fire has also targeted the town of town where u.s.

troops just recently evacuated now. this is territory held by the s.d.f. kurdish led forces troops are stationed in the turkish border town of a carly we're just hearing from charles and turkey already has a presence elsewhere in syria holding a number of observation points in the northwest of the country an area also controlled by rebel forces one says the wider aim of the offensive is we are hearing is to establish a safe zone inside the s.d.f. territory where some 2000000 refugees currently hosted in turkey can then be settled with turkish vice president has said that the operation could stabilize northeast area. we need peace and stability to be in syria we need to sort out the syrian crisis and we will hand these territories to the real owners and we came to take part in all meetings and summits that aim at sorting out the syrian crisis this operation will be

a source of peace and will bring peace and will sort out the syrian crisis in a radical way this operation lead by president recep tayyip erdogan is one of the steps and one of the procedures among other steps taken by president for the sake of syria and for keeping the unity of syria let's now speak to saddam new who's on the phone from istanbul and despite what the turkish vice president was saying there about this bringing peace to syria really the concern is that it's going to do the reverse that it's going to bring. more death to the civilian population there now what is turkey saying just tell us a bit more about what this could mean for the the s.d.f. specifically. mariyam of course similar through operation and all taste it is critical. if for the s.f. it's also critical for turkey as well because both sides are posing a risk to each other and there are risks waiting for both sides at the turkish side

with your it is based on a legit what they call a legitimate little legitimate to war against a terrorist organization because her keep the right peachy is a terrorist organization as it's the offshoot of the p.k. k. that's why they say we have they have to clear the say we are from them in order not to let the same area could become a terror corydoras so that they can also send back some some of the syrian refugees who are now living in trick you know there are more than 3600000 syrian refugees residing in turkey but of course a tactic wise military wise this will be at the fickle corporation for good turkish military as well and for this it is serious syrian democratic forces as the u.s. says that they're not going to support they feel left out as well but let's not forget president donald trump we took that as there he pulled out his troops but

he's continuing to supply the thieving democratic forces and the y p g with. finance and weaponry and the what good is provided to the s.c.f. by the united states for the last couple of years has been a huge just a concern for turkey because turkey claims that these weapons will be captured by the p.k. k. as well and not all of them have been used so far against the again during the fight against i still and those have a mission we will be used against surrogate this is what turkey saves and what turkey has been saying is. if the united states. say that the y p g is the force driving forces in the fight against arsenal in syria turkey says why are you fighting a terrorist organization with another one this is the turkish rhetorical and they said the turks said this area should be cleared of this place but of course there

are concerns that the population will be displaced there will be and more casualties that can be a cut those who of when you speak to the turkish military their representatives they say that. these things cause think using people civilians as a military issue or causing when terry cut us off is against the turkish military code then traditions and they say turkish military served in somalia in afghanistan and turkish military stance has been appreciated by the nato allies all the time that's why they say there is no doubt we are going to protect the civilians but of course how this mother christian is going to arm folded so i don't know if this is a huge area this is that this is 30 kilometers and more than 400 kilometers wide by the border type is going to show how it's going to falls and of course there's

a sense by the syrian syrian the focus of force aside the white peachy side is another binding factor what kind of weapons are going to be used how have the circles how harshly is this conflict going to be one thing is important mr president and iran are going to meet in washington in november probably that there will be more negotiations but there is one risk that that awaits for turkey to mosco says they can they can mitigate between the p y d's and the syrian regime so turkey risks being left by all allies or partners during this. operation to upgrade. the area all right thanks very much and there it let's go to patty calling in washington of course there had to be a major shift in u.s. policy on syria when president trump appeared to endorse the turkish military

operations now the way it is that the white house doesn't support what's happening . this is really been a tremendously unprecedented time in presidential politics what you saw as a sunday evening in local time in the president tweeted out that the u.s. troops were getting out of the way basically leaving the door open for exactly what is happening now well right after that you saw across the board from democrats from republicans from the president's most staunch allies say this is a horrible idea you cannot do this basically saying take it back so what you saw the president then do is he tweeted that you know if turkey did something he didn't like he would just devastate their act their economy so then this happened and now we've seen a statement from the white house basically calling this an invasion and says the u.s. does not endorse the attack that they told the president told him it was a bad idea but that he wanted to get u.s.

troops out of harm's way and now i saw these amik state is turkey's responsibility and their problem so the president basically doubling down saying 1st this was good now maybe i'll burn you economically now he's saying this is a bad idea but we have to get troops out of the way and that the same time white house officials are telling reporters this isn't the president greenlighting this what they're calling an invasion or this incursion and now it's pretty clear that this was in fact greenlit by the president because the thing that i've been keeping turkey from taking this measure were the u.s. troops in the president dismissed it as their only 50 troops but it was more the presence of what they had to do and if something was to happen to them by turkish forces what that could bring turkey down the line so those troops although a small number they have been incremental they have been absolutely the most important thing keeping this incursion from happening the defense department up until just recently kept saying we're doing joint patrols with turkey to show them

that this is not a threat to them that had been the u.s. strategy up until this phone call which took pretty much everyone in washington by surprise. right so ok patty will so we'll continue to obviously monitor reaction coming out of washington there but we have just hit the top of the hour so i want to recap what we are covering for those of you that it just joining us military sources telling al-jazeera that the incursion has started into northeast syria of course a military operation a turkish military operation was already underway in the area with certain towns in the northeast of syria being targeted with as strikes and with shelling specifically the towns of. ain and. now the turkish military is saying that the purpose is to eliminate what they are describing as a territorial and they claim that they're only targeting s.d.f. forces in s.d.f.

positions but we know that there are many civilians in the area many hundreds of thousands of civilians that have been living on the s.d.f. rule many of these syrians have already been displaced as a result of the war in the country and so therefore this incursion where you do have turkish troops coming into northeast syria could cause a great deal of chaos up evil and there could be die a humanitarian consequences given that these people are already living in shortage of food water and electricity and shelter but that's a situation as it stands now perhaps important to also mention that we don't know specifically. which troops have been deployed into northern syria we know that. we don't know specifically which troops are participating in the ground invasion the. the suspicion has been that turkey would. be reluctant to use its own troops at this point in the operation and that they are

much more likely to deploy fighters from the f.s.a. that the free syrian army the expectation is that turkey will tread very cautiously in these initial stages and so therefore the troops that are crossing into northeast syria from turkey are turkish backed troops as opposed to turkish troops themselves but that is the situation as it stands at the moment president. announced the decision on twitter a little bit earlier on saying that the idea was to create a so-called safe zone a safe zone that would act as a buffer zone inside of northeast syria but world leaders have also been speaking out they've been calling on and great to exercise restraint after it launched its operation an emergency un security council meeting is going called for by e.u. member states to discuss the turkish operation france has strongly condemned the move and its unease prime minister says that it risks destabilizing the region and

harming civilians are still present lend him a boost and want his turkish counterpart president to want to avoid any steps in syria that could damage its peace process moscow's also called for a dialogue between the syrian government and the kurds and the nato secretary general yen stoltenberg has called on turkey to act with restraint and ensure any actions taken all proportionate and measured the un chief says that is no military solution to the conflict in syria. it is in a colony on turkey's border with syria and he is following this story for us. do we have any idea about the numbers of troops that have been deployed that are crossing into northeast syria right now. no we have no no confirmation as to how many troops are going to be participating in this that incursion it now has been officially announced by the military that that land incursion has begun there was speculation certainly amongst military analysts that

the were going to use some of their allies members of the f.s.a. the free syrian army that they have supported since basically the beginning of the revolution in syria that were transported board over to turkey in the last sort of 2448 hours. analysts saying that they were going to be used as land forces some analysts saying that they were to be used to the west of here around the town called monday with the idea that they could eventually join up with any turkish troops that went in for the to the east certainly we have seen a lot of trace a file of heavy machine gun exchanges in the last hour also quite close to here the artillery strikes continue as well there was about your brackets that was launched literally. just literally in the last 5 minutes or so from here we understand just to just to confirm what we're hearing in terms of locations of some

of the targeted a areas we hear that there is around i mean a lot of cold bonnie tell cheese as we we have very close to so we can confirm that they have been hit russell i mean and i and elise now as you say that they are targeting s.d.f. positions only we understand that one of these positions according to turkish media was an s.t.a. if weapons. we are trying to make contact with people across the border it's interesting that i suppose in the last 3 hours the lights all. been going out and certainly the people that we have spoken to. suppose about 3 hours ago it was saying that they had been told by the u.s.d.a. to remain in their homes with great concern for the hundreds of thousands of people who live along this border all the syrian side concern obviously that is the

turkish troops took a lot of troops if that be the case move further south then we could see over see thousands of people being pushed further sell through desir and there's no guarantee that they are going to receive get the kind of humanitarian assistance they will need in this not forget these people who have suffered abuse. under one of the bush humanitarian crises in the world. indeed we're talking about hundreds of thousands of families that will be very anxious tonight because of the risks that lie ahead and of course when there is military action of this nature it is very unpredictable and there can be unforeseen consequences and now i know there's a great deal we we don't know charles in terms of the precise number of troops that are participating in this ground incursion but is there a sense that ankara is treading lightly that it lightly in these initial steps

in that it's unlikely to be a large scale invasion that they might just be moving into to establish and to establish certain posts in the area for example. as difficult to say certainly as we have been hearing you know the government says that it is targeting s.t.a. forces the ski he considers it a anti terror organize operation sorry in order to set up this area where it can begin to send some of the 3600000 syrian refugees that are living in turkey back to its setting up a safe area for them it's very difficult to gauge exactly how they see this plan will will go forward at this stage and as i say that the turks are very keen to say that. fundamentally the international community will benefit from this operation

because it's targeting what he describes as terrorists and i so. i'm just hearing now what sounds like a barrel of artillery to our right here i mean there are huge concerns in terms of the the ramifications of this operation with respect to the fight against i so we know that there are thousands of eisel prisoners being held across the border in s.d.f. controlled jails u.s. president donald trump has said that the church will take should take complete responsibility for any kind of resurgence and i selectively see in that area if indeed if indeed we saw prison as a scape let's not forget that the turks consider the certainly the why p.g. the main fighting force of the u.s.d.a. is a terrorist organization aligned to the p.k. k. the kurdish workers party that has been involved in fighting basically the turkish

government will decades and we've heard full you know a number of years now this this determination by the to push the white p.g. there's another. hillary being launched back from this it's fair to say that the turks see the war preachy is fundamentally an existential threats. that the turkish line but as we've been reporting there is a huge concern in the international community and the united nations in terms of the ramifications that this operation has for the hundreds of thousands of civilians living along with border thank you very much charles trafford monitoring everything there for us from a collie in turkey and is director and senior associate of the turkey project at the center for strategic and international studies joins us via skype from washington and there was an inevitability to this incursion wasn't. as long seen withdrawal of u.s.

troops as the opportunity to i suppose crush s.t.'s fight as you are in this pos of syria previously somewhat protected by the american presence that what are your thoughts on turkey's objectives. well there is a observers from washington. you know the what you refer to as a sense of inevitability projected to a call that the president are going to put to president trump here in washington on sunday where president trump a sense essentially gave the green light for the for their operation and and within 3 days the operation was launched now there are 2 parts to this operation and go on this morning i can from both of them one is to actually clear the the why p.g. from the border area and to set up what he calls a safe zone and 2nd need to. send back as your reporter said some of the refugees you know up to 2000000 and maybe even more. to northern syria that part of that

more this area from the euphrates to the iraqi border but of course that the amount of refugees who would be sent depends directly on the breath and depth of the well there's only that the turks will control and it's don't quite clear how far president trump who how. clear the way for this operation. what he meant by it were saying that if the turks go too far so there are going to be complications arising whether spec to us on the standing of the oh there are operations as are proceed. what do you mean well i mean it when you speak about us misunderstanding i mean we initially thought that president trump endorsed this minute change caution everyone was saying that u.s. withdrawal from the area effectively given this operation the green light now comes this state.