to the home world. experience outstanding shopping and dining offers and drawing on a services. biala guest trunk food cd managed by from paul. this is d w news live from berlin a blow has been struck against the so-called islamic state with the capture of its headquarters the suppose it caliphate the city of raka in syria the months

long fight has left the city in rowan's but how much damage has been done to the militant group itself. also coming up in neighboring iraq baghdad is pushing ahead with an offensive to retake disputed kurdish held areas as the u.n. and the u.s. appeal for call. and a prominent investigative journalist is killed in a car bomb attack in malta the e.u. says that it is horrified at the death of deftly gallito her son accuses the maltese government of complicity. plus the champions league hits the pitch on tuesday and it is crunch time for this to get teams the life stage facing porto while door open to take on the go sia both clubs need a win to get their respective campaigns back on track.

i'm sorry kelly welcome thanks for joining us. u.s. backed fighters in syria have retaken rocka the city that the so-called islamic state considers its capital now troops fighting i-s. say that they have captured one of the militants last holdouts the city's hospital but there are still pockets of resistance here one of them is reported to be a stadium complex and rocko which was used by us as a prison and an arms dump dozens of fighters have made their last stand there once the seat of islamic state's power the long fight for iraq has left the city in ruins. a five month battle is over for the syrian kurdish and the ira fighters backed by the united states they killed dozens of i asked militants in their final push rocka is now a shell of a city. there's nothing left we're near the end we haven't seen

any i asked militants we haven't seen any of them near the stadium either i think the city will be fully clear of them in the next two days which is once all of the i asked militants are gone from syria i'll go home. i asked took control of rocca in early twenty fourteen and made it the company all of its self-styled conifer to. the militants imposed a strict interpretation of islamic law and used extreme means such as beheadings and torture to quash those who oppose the rule it became home to thousands of jihadists from across the globe after a call by asked leader. to migrate to the syrian city however in recent months the so-called islamic state has steadily lost territory in syria and iraq. the fall of rocca is a major blow to the militant group but the extremists still controlled territory in neighboring regions on the iraqi side of the border. a long road lies ahead to heal

wounds and rebuild the ruined city of raka the spite these fighters celebrations. well let's get more now on this offensive i'm joined in the studio by daniel gary locke from zenith magazine and he is a middle east expert daniel thanks so much for being with us this afternoon and for having me now that rocca has been liberated what does this mean for the so-called islamic state. the so-called islamic state has lost its both both of its symbolic and at the same same time structural capitals mosul in iraq and iraq and syria which was much more symbolic capital since it was the capital of the of the killing of an irishman and they made this a story call references of course but they have a lot left and lost a stronghold in syria but this doesn't come unprepared for them they know it's a long time since months that rocket would fall and they have to place their you can say essential or non-essential staff their commanders and their families to the

euphrates valley and there are still some pockets and there they are confronting the syrian regime and somehow we will see who is going to the city of rockets going to be handed over my guests you know later it's going to be the syrian regime to as they were preparing for this as you know you mentioned it seems as if they had a backup plan in fact for when this city would fall what does that mean now for the anti islamic state coalition going forward for example what needs to be done politically to make sure that the military gains are in fact not lost or or that they're carried out. what i see in syria at the moment is fear and particular from the side of those tribes that lived under the yoke of the so-called islamic state or some of them have been forced into this and alliance or negligence to the islamic state and they're now left to the mercy of several armed groups and militias around you have the syrian regime you have the kurdish so-called syrian

democratic forces. you have iraqi militias who are coming in across the border from iraq and these tribes they are in danger because the islamic state forces are going to try to merge into them and they're going to try to hide into them and the alternative would be like a military clint's in against these forces and many people would fall victim to that or they would be left to the mercy of shia militias that are coming from iraq and they're very much afraid of that so i think this area is very much in focus now at the moment and needs to be peddled wise so then looking forward for this group the so-called islamic state looking into the future say you had a crystal ball looking one year ahead perhaps even five years ahead how do you see it evolving over time. look i never i never thought that the territorial project of the so-called islamic state was something tangible insistent substantial. you could see if the opponents and if the states a week in the region then these jihadi groups can always reemerge and rebrand

themselves and and have some kind of terror territorial gains or autonomy. in certain parts of the middle east but i don't think that there is ever going to be such a territorial territorial project again unless the main players which are the syrian regime and other powers in the middle east a letting it happen either voluntarily or out of carelessness and i think this is the danger of the ideology of jihadism the ideology that that that empowered or the so-called islamic state is still present globally it's still having a lot of attracting a lot of disciples and even though the territorial project might be dead jihadism a still alive and still very dangerous ok daniel fascinating stuff here and you're going to actually stick with us because we want to get your perspective on happenings elsewhere in the region we're actually going to head now to syria's neighbor iraq where government forces say that they have taken control of all major oil fields in the disputed northern province of care cook as follows fast on the heels of their capture of the kurdish held city of kirkuk have

a lot of. celebrations as iraqi forces ruling. supporters of the iraqi central government could contain their joy. oh as thousands of kurdish residents fled the city ahead of the advance. i'm sure you were heading to irbil because the situation is getting worse the iraqi troops are ventured there's no way we could stay. there are no our children are terrified we were afraid that there would be clashes and mortar rounds would have taught us that's what i'm worried about. can't cook an oil rich problem is claimed by both kurds and the iraqi government had been under kurdish control since iraqi forces fled when these 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 kirkuk voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a controversial referendum kurdish peshmerga leaders see the seizure of kirkuk amounts to a declaration of war. and we are to where he joins now by daniel gary locke to tell us a little bit more about you know how it is that you see this playing out in particular because i mean there are so many loose alliances and and disputes here as well i don't think that we will see a military confrontation between the courts first night of forces and the iraqi central states army and its militias i don't think this is going to happen was disputed for many years and the iraqi government announced such a step but they just did of course it's in a coke of was an embarrassment to both sides because it has oil and because it's so disputed and such a difficult like kind of iraq in a nutshell but i think both sides are reasonable enough to know that another full

fledged war would cost many many lives and wouldn't totally said iraq ablaze so i don't think that's going to happen and of course this and wishful thinking of two daniel gary locke middle east expert journalist with zenith magazine we thank you so much for joining us this afternoon to share your expertise on the region and the latest happenings today. now let's get a quick check of some other stories that are making news around the world for the pain president rugby go to terror take has declared mar all we liberated from terrorists he visited the southern city one day after the last two islamist leaders were killed but military leaders say that the battle is still ongoing as they search the ruins for remaining pockets of militants. and taliban militants in afghanistan have carried out a suicide car bombing and gone to town on a provincial police headquarters an attack that killed at least thirty three people it was part of a series of attacks against police across the country that have left at least seventy eight people dead and hundreds wounded. at least thirty seven people have

been killed in forest fires and portugal firefighters are battling more than five hundred fires in the north and the center of the country the government says that the fires the worst in more than a decade have been caused by higher than average temperatures and drought. one of best known investigative journalists has been killed by a car bomb daphne car wanna go was known for her reports accusing the government of corruption she exposed what she said were links between government officials and secret bank accounts in panama the prime minister of malta has called the murder a barbaric act and he also acknowledged that she was the one one of his harshest critics definitely wanted to lisa's co exploded just after she had driven away from her home in moscow a town outside boxes kept to the letter 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 a monday evening to mourn her death. she was an anti corruption crusader and multan is best known investigative journalist the case and stone the small my draconian island which is home to some four hundred parents and people family friend luke friend o. 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 is is 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 in azerbaijan 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 and stirring europe. and sports news german side rb leipsic will be hoping to claim their first ever

champions league victory tonight last season the team stormed to second place in their debut going to slink a campaign but so far they have struggled to find success in europe and are bottom of their group ahead of their home game against f.c. porto. so far the red bulls haven't really had their head in europe and are bottom of their group after two games playing multiple matches a week required squad depth and coach got a positive is confident he can get the best out of his team and you this is the coaching staff have to ensure we have the fittest players in the starting eleven and those players play the leipzig way if we manage that they were uncomfortable opponent for every team. on the back of an impressive win against dortmund lights are in good nick even better star striker team a van a could return after

a prolonged spell on the sidelines. for his mansion phenomenon but then i haven't yet decided whether he'll starts will be on the bench. the important thing is he's injury free. but he needs some time to get back to his best after such a long break from training. opponents top of the portuguese league but just two points ahead of light sic in the group a first european win could see the german side of it take porto and claim second spot. you're up to date on. what.