online and interactive. german to go. learn german for free with g.w. . this is d w news live from berlin islamic states a one time capital of the city of raka in syria has fallen. u.s. backed forces say they've overcome the final pockets of resistance from the extremists it marks the end of an intense battle that started back in june so what now i guess

was a coming up in neighboring iraq vanguard is pushing ahead with an offensive to retake disputed kurdish red areas as the u.n. and the u.s. appeal for calm. and of trauma in an investigative journalist is killed in a car bomb attack in malta the e.u. says it's hard to fight at the death of daphne zia hassan accuses the morty's government of complicity. hona will welcome to you i'm under thought she. u.s. backed fighters in syria have retaken the city the so-called islamic state considered its de facto capital a commander of the troops fighting isis operations underway to clear the city of landmines and militant sleeper cells dozens of jihad this have

had made their last stand of the city stadium but it's still unclear if they remained holed up there meanwhile soldiers celebrated iraq because liberation as a four month battle and. now for more on the story let me draw in bend in beirut lebanon she's the middle east director with the foundation a think tank it is also a security policy expert hi benta first of four appears to have a full and do you think the back off this terrorist group the so-called islamic state has been broken well at least since the early deals a heavy blow to the organization other than other extremist groups crisis was very important to give itself here insensate like entity with official capital and so. a lot in terms of retaining the organization. to

artemis say i mean it's not only about territory and. i hope she answered back to that allow crisis to come into being in the first place so this is a big. risk i think we still have a lot to work on in the following days and months and years i would say in terms of territory i s still controls pockets of territory in syria as well as in iraq how much of a security threat does the group still remain. if you take into consideration the history of ices it has taken so many different shapes over there at different stages firstly sot of hearing it is al qaeda and iraq this is deep hate to go and since then it has been able to transform it has been able to shrink and grow and shrink so to speak up and i says it's a very temporary thing and we should really work on the political factors our

political strategy to follow now what has that it she's militarily that i just said even if the terror people have been lost or taken away from the ideology still remains how much support does the group or the ideology of us still have for other spend to terrorist groups in the region. you know people living under isis control i think really the joy that now we see that rights liberated and what we've also seen in other cities that are liberated of isis control joyce very plenty it's not that everybody in the region are like share of the population would buy into their ideology and support that isis means that brady has been brutal for him deliberately displayed and so i think a lot of the people who might have seen under their control should definitely not be consider their supporters or our presence there is traction to this to especially to the to call marginalization of somalis in the right who's not and and

also syria has been staged somehow into office a lot of characteristics that allowed little say heavens for these groups still then to a security policy expert thank you very much for that assessment thank you very much. iraqi government forces say they've taken control of all major oil fields in the disputed northern province of good cooks they're also pushing into other areas that are outside the kurdish autonomy area in what baghdad calls operations to defend iraq's integrity after kurds voted for independence in a referendum last month that that vote was hand in the autonomy region off it aki kurdistan you see that in the north and also in some disputed areas outside of its borders like in kirkuk which is shaded in green and the iraqi army's retaliating m d taking what it considers its last territory now the kurds occupy those areas of an islamic state advanced across the country garnish forces have been drawing

voluntarily in some areas but other reports say they have been caches we have this report. celebrations in can't cook as iraqi forces rolling. supporters of the iraqi central government could contain their joy. thousands of kurdish residents fled the city ahead of the advance. we're heading to irbil because the situation is getting worse the iraqi troops have entered there's no way we could stay. children are terrified we were afraid that there would be clashes and mortar rounds would have us that's what i'm worried about. can't cook an oil rich province claimed by both kurds and iraqi government had been under kurdish control since iraqi forces led when the slimy state militants swept through the region in twenty fourteen. now it's back into the control of the iraqi

government the advance comes three weeks after residents in the kurdistan region and also here in cape cod voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a controversial referendum kurdish peshmerga leaders see the seizure of kirkuk amounts to a declaration of war. now with me i have florian oil she's a journalist who has reported extensively from iraq including kid cook welcome from afar and he will often embedded with iraqi forces it seems they have taken control of many of the disputed regions what is the latest you're hearing about the offensive well after taking a cook quite easily yesterday that is there now also have moved troops interesting close to the syrian border and areas closer to the iranian border and also moved on to that was pretty controlled by the kurds around the city of mosul and it seems

to me that the peshmerga are retreating without a fight today after that where some trash is yesterday and give us some context why is this certain area off northern iraq considered disputed regions and this was territory that was not part of they did not become part of the autonomous. the coach autonomous zone after the second gulf war which the kurds very much see as part of a greater kurdistan why is that because codes on a majority that no these are areas are ethnically mixed and there's no real certainty as to who provides an majority there where there's arab start where not kurds because they haven't been any census done for generations for decades so there's no real clarity there but it is technically iraqi territory not kurdish. the kurdish zone now this iraqi army offensive comes shortly after the kids held a referendum where they overwhelmingly voted in favor of independence on the concerns that the iraqi army might not push into what is considered autonomy

goodish areas. there will be concerns personally i don't really share those i think the strain of the regional government is so dire in any case that the measures that the iraqi governors take and nonmilitary measures are strong enough to bring a bill to its field over time and how did this see this conflict evolving florin for example iraq is a largely shia country do you see this conflict between the shia led government and the turks and the kids i beg your pardon escalating. i think they have a later as much as they possibly can again i don't think there will be iraqi units moving into the autonomous zone itself. and you have to remember that these areas that the iraqis are moving to are part of the iraqi territory and i think once they have reclaimed those i think they will or their advance but that's

not accepted by the code as you've said the bush medica have withdrawn for for now but is that going to stay would that be a state or would they try to retake these activities which they consider as a part of the autonomous region. given that they have drawn largely without a fight the surprise is there now suddenly change their attack and start attacking the iraqi army i think they advance by the iraqis will not be contest as florian nor hope for genesis was extensively covered in the iraqi conflict thank you very much for joining us. let me now bring you up to date with some other stories making news around the watch in afghanistan at least fifteen people have been killed in a hundred and thirty wounded in a suicide and gun attack in the eastern province of the taliban has claimed responsibility militants in india killed fourteen people in a nearby gosney province in an attack on a police headquarters. turkey has announced that the first hearing in the trial of jailed german human rights activists peter story will take place next week

extraordinary among a group of amnesty international activists who have been accused of terrorism related charges but it has condemned extraordinary the arrest which has severely strained relations with unca philippines president arroyo diego to tears he has declared morale be liberated from terrorists he visits the southern city one day off the last two islamist leaders were killed but military leaders say the battle is still ongoing as is so large the ruins for remaining pockets of resistance. one of malta's most well known investigative journalists has been killed by a car bomb daphne caruana was known for her reports exposing government corruption she exposed what she said will links between government officials and secret bank accounts in panama morty's prime minister jews of muscat called the murder

a barbaric act you also acknowledge that she was one of his harshest critics. exploded just after she had driven away from her home in moscow a town outside. the force of the blast flung her vehicle over a wall into a field the journalist had filed a report with the police two weeks ago but she was receiving threats some three thousand people gathered for a vigil on monday evening to mourn her. she was an anti corruption crusader and multan is best known investigative journalist the case and stone the small matter of crying in ireland which is home to some four hundred parents and people family friend luke friend told the crowd her death would not be in vain i think definitely was not only a journalist and an absolutely fearless human being but. a fourth pillar of our

democracy and that today's heinous crime was was not only against a human being against a journalist but against a pillar of everyone's democracy and i i hope that's why i know that her life was is it was definitely not for nothing and i'm sure that the torch will be carried by somebody else. sees prime minister joseph miscount who wanted to leave here accused of wrongdoing earlier this year called her killing a barbaric attack on press freedom. the journalist had revealed that the panama papers allegedly showed the prime minister's wife owned a company in panama and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts and john muscat called early elections in june as a vote of confidence to counter the allegations he was reelected after he and his wife denied the accusations politico magazine had named. as one of twenty eight

europeans who are shaping shaking. europe. and is now well abundantly gottlieb's dortmund live say are facing do or die clashes in the champions league group stage in group h. dortmund travelled decide where to lose in their first two european fixtures anything less than three points will almost certainly endorsements hopes of progressing to the knock on stage and for throw in group looking to grab their fost ever champions when. now astronomers say it's a gift that keeps on giving for the first time they've been able to observe the collision of two superdense neutron stars the gravity is to shock waves rippling across space i'm talking some of the mysteries of the universe including the origin of good i'm going to leave you now with an animation of the cosmic crash enjoy.

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