tens of thousands have taken to the streets of venezuela in rival mass rallies. the head of the opposition, juan guaido, is trying to force president maduro from power. the president also spoke at a rally in support of his leadership and the current government. russia has announced that it's pulling out of a cold war arms control treaty, and says it will develop a new hypersonic missile. it mirrors a move to withdraw from the treaty by the united states on friday. and the governor of the us state of virginia, ralph northam, has refused to resign, after he was accused of being in a racist photo in his yearbook. he says the person in the photo is not him. those are the latest headlines. now on bbc news, a special programme from yemen on the escalation of america's covert war against al qaeda. in an investigation for bbc arabic, safa al ahmad has uncovered evidence that the us operation has recently escalated,

that a significant number of yemeni civilians have been killed, and that the usa's other strategic aims in yemen are being undermined. this film contains graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing. yemen, i have been covering the devastating war here began four years ago. i have come back to investigate a different conflict. the escalation of the us fight against al-qaeda and yemen. there has been little reporting on the ground about what the us is doing here. but two years ago, one operation made headlines. us forces launched a surprise raiding in united overnight.

targeting an al-qaeda in southern yemen... the pre—dawn raid went wrong almost from the beginning, leaving a navy seal dead. a highly successful raid that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy. i was hearing reports questioning how successful that mission was, and i was also hearing about civilian casualties. i wanted to go and see for myself what had happened that night, but also what it might reveal about the larger counterterrorism operation that the us were conducting. yemen has been wracked by war between armed factions since 2014. on one side, a group from northern yemen with links to iran. against them, many tribes and a coalition, including yemeni government

troops, saudi arabia, and the united arab emirates, supported by the united states. at the same time, the us has been trying to target isis and al-qaeda here. the navy seal raid was in a village, on the front line between the tribes and the houthis. since i heard about the raid, i've been trying for months to get access to the village. i finally got a phone call, i was going to be picked up by somebody from yakla village and be driven there. yakla is a very dangerous place to get to because it sits in the middle of several front lines. you have the houthis, you have the tribes, and you have the yemeni government fighting there. you also have elements of al-qaeda, and so this exposes everyone to the danger of us drone strikes.

on the way, the driver stopped in a clearing, where he told me that this is where the american special forces had landed... they had treked for seven km to the village of yakla, so we had retraced their trip to the village. on the 29th of january, 2017, navy seals attacked an al-qaeda headquarters here, according to a pentagon statement. it says they met resistance, including from numerous female fighters. one american soldier was killed and three others injured. i wanted to talk to the eyewitnesses that had survived the raid,

to hear their narrative about what happened. this local tribal leader has been in hiding since the raid and has not been interviewed about what happened until now. he says he and his tribe have been fighting the houthis, on the side backed by the united states. at 2am, he says his 11—year—old son ahmed was on the roof and saw armed men approaching. thinking they were houthis, he shouted out. he says the commandos then shot him through the heart. his family returned fire. he survived that night, but his wife was killed. this woman's grandson was killed. the people of yakla told me that

at least seven women and ten children were killed that night. the youngest was a three—month—old. the pentagon acknowledged that civilians, including children, were likely killed in what they called a ferocious fire fight. but they said the navy seals had obtained valuable intelligence and taken out al-qaeda leaders, including two brothers. this man denies they had anything to do with al-anda. he says one of them was a tribal commander with the yemen army, the side backed by the us.

this was confirmed to us by the yemeni government. the family did have connections to al-qaeda in the past. the family is symbolic of the complexities of yemen politics. you have people of his family who did choose to join al-anda. you have members who did not and chose to fight them. the brother—in—law, the us yemeni al-qaeda leader was killed in a drone strike in 2011. the 8—year—old daughter, annis, was killed in the raid. the family said she was shot in the neck. the members of the family that

i spoke to told me that they had paid a really hard pricejust because they were part of the family. the villagers say close to 30 were killed. most are buried in the cemetery. department of defence investigations concluded there were between four and 12 civilian casualties, and that around 35 enemy combatants had been killed. the dod would not comment on the brothers. they said there was no evidence of incomplete information, incompetence, poor decision—making, or bad judgement. they also said lessons have been learned that will be applied in future operations. the yakla raid marked the beginning of a dramatic escalation of the us‘s ongoing war

against al-qaeda in yemen. during president obama's eight years in office, the united states carried out around 154 drone strikes in yemen. in president trump's first two years, there have been around 176. our priority is the against fight against al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. this is a franchise al-qaeda metatasizing threat. this is the franchise of al-qaeda that has demonstrated an ability to try to attack our homeland. the roads leading out of the village of yakla littered with the wreckage of cars destroyed by drone strikes. while i was in yemen, i heard about the drone strike that has just recently happened. it was in the central region. it all started apparently when a boy had joined al-anda. this is the boy's uncle.

he took me to meet his young nephew. for his safety, we agreed not to show his face. he says he ran away from home with friends to join al-anda. al-qaeda in yemen doesn't just preachjihad against the united states, but also against the uae forces, saudis, and the houthis, all of whom they consider infidels. the situation in yemen is very complex. you have conflicts about who is fighting who. the people on the ground tell me

that many of the men who are joining al-qaeda are joining for local reasons and local conflicts, and not necessarily because they want to join the globaljihad. according to villagers, on the 26th of january 2018, the boy's father and some relatives set out by car, to rescue him from al-anda. while driving, they came under attack. the family say seven relatives were killed in the strike. ali is a soldier in the yemeni army.

he says the boy's father was a taxi driver and two other uncles who were also killed were also in the yemen army. ali prepared these papers to clear the names of his relatives. he wants the united states to pay compensation for their deaths. he says he is now the sole provider for over 30 family members. we asked the pentagon about the strike and ali's account of the deaths. the pentagon declined the bbc‘s request for an interview, but told us air strikes has killed at least ten al-qaeda leaders and associates in yemen. it said it is in our national security interest to pursue violent extremist organisations like al-qaeda and isis. that have attacked us forces

in the region and abrod. they need to degrade their ability for further attacks. the largest known us special forces in the yemen happened in the west. the pentagon described it as a mission that killed seven terorrists with no civilian casualties. the raid took place in a tiny little village on may 23, 2017. the people who live in the village described an apocalyptic scene. they were so frightened about the amount of us soldiers that were sent. the helicopters, the drones. the villagers say they had been waiting to tell the world their version of what happened the night the us attacked their village.

this 8—year—old's back and hearing were damaged in the raid. a united nations investigation later said that 50 us soldiers were involved in the attack. in addition to al-qaeda casualties, five civilians were killed, including an 80—year—old man. this woman was at home that night with ehr six children. she says her 15—year—old son was a conscript in the yemeni army

and was killed that night. this is his gun. she says that he tried to defend his family. other men did the same. in a statement, the pentagon says precision air strikes from a gunship were used. the villagers say the soldiers withdrew in a hurry.

while filming with the family, they brought out a plastic ladder that they were struggling to open. they also had a medical backpack. within the backpack, where several laminated papers. one of the papers had 22 names on it with blood types. i assume that they were at the names of the special ops guys that were on that mission, and included two dogs. we tracked down some of the names on the list and confirmed that they were navy seals. to protect their identities, we are obscuring their names. the pentagon would not comment on the list, saying "we will not discuss our tactics, techniques, and procedures."

several sources with experience in special forces operations told us that even taking a list of full names on a mission was a grave mistake. back in the village, two years after the raid, the family says they still do not understand why the united states attacked their village. the yemeniis i've spoken to, all of them had a common fear, a fear of something that is completely out of their control, the drone strikes, the raids, adding to the massive fear and confusion that they are already

feeling in this complicated war. since the raid, there have been further drone strikes. including a strike that hit this car and killed the driver. this sheikh's house has been hit three times. he said three of his bodyguards were killed. he remains in hiding. for the families trapped here there is nowehre safe to go. meanwhile, a new generation of yemenis will know nothing but war as they grow up. hello. snow has been the most prominent feature of the weather over much of the last week. at least on saturday, the sunshine came back. but that's going to be harder to find through much of sunday. as cloud increases, some of us

will see a bit more wet weather. that comes after quite a hard frost to start the day. in fact, some places could well be into minus double figures, where this snow is deepest. you can see the extent of the frost as well, even in town and city centres it's a cold start to the day. for many of us there will be some sunshine, but from the word go, northern ireland and western scotland, more cloud around here and some rain, sleet and snow, courtesy of these weather fronts coming in from the atlantic. slowly pushing their way a bit further east as we go through the day. now, the early wet weather should be fairly soon out of the way in northern ireland. a damp start here. again, the rain preceded by a bit of sleet and snow in places, and in that process moves across scotland and to northern england and may just fringe north wales. south of that it should stay mainly dry. cloud increasing, but still some sunny spells towards east anglia and south—east england. behind the wet weather it brightens up again in scotland. it stays cloudy in northern ireland. further outbreaks of rain coming back going into the evening. temperatures a little bit higher. parts of south—west england could be up to 10 celsius. a freshening south—westerly wind.

stronger through sunday night and into monday morning, as it feeds in more wet weather, while most of us will see rain out of this, a bit of snow falling into the pennines and southern uplands, that especially into the high ground north of the central belt in scotland, where we could see 5—10 centimetres building up as we go through monday. it will be quite slow to clear, and a much less cold start to the day on monday. some rainjust affecting parts of south—east england as monday starts. it may not clear the far south—east. it looks like we will hold onto an area of cloud in east anglia. snowy weather slowly pulling away from northern scotland, and many other areas will see things brightening up on monday. temperatures again will be a bit higher, some of us in south—west england getting into double figures. they will drop again on monday night and this ridge of high pressure with clear skies, there will be another frost going into tuesday morning. low pressure gathering to the west, setting the scene for quite an unsettled week to come. there will be some sunny days, but there will also be some wet days. it will often be windy, but one thing to take from this

chart is those temperatures will head upwards. more of us at times will see temperatures into double figures, and of course that is going to feel very different compared to what we've had over much of the past week or two. a change for the milder in the week ahead. you're watching bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: tens of thousands take to the streets of venezuela in rival mass rallies for and against president nicolas maduro. russia says it will follow the us and pull out of a key nuclear treaty as it begins developing

a new range of missiles. as the pressure slowly mounts on venezuela's president, nicolas maduro, he's told supporters in caracas he's prepared to hold parliamentary elections. but the offer falls short of the presidential elections demanded by some european countries. at a bigger rally in the capital, the opposition leader,