and the continent. w.'s new t.v. series for africa. dot com africa on the move. this is you get your news live from berlin the syrian government's deadly assault on civilians nearly two hundred people have been killed in two days of airstrikes on the rebel held on claims of eastern culture many of the dead are women and children. also coming up a shock result as the far right alternative for germany overtakes the social democrats for the first time in a national opinion poll that says the social democrats launch

a make or break vote to enter another coalition government will get no. i'm serious almost kind of thank you for joining us the united nations is warning that the situation in the syrian rebel held on klav of eastern hotel is spinning out of control. the syrian observatory for human rights says government air raids on the area close to the syrian capital damascus have killed there are only two hundred civilians since monday many of them women and children the suburb has been under siege by regime forces for more than four years. let's bring in i've not had died a syrian opposition activist who's been observing the situation from a turkey i'm not good to see you thank you for joining us you're in contact with

people in how to what are they telling you and why is the syrian government attacking this area now. especially today with hitting mode and. people calling you know crying describing the situation to be fake knowing these people have said by more than five years of siege when they say this situation is that the stuff that means it's pretty much glee and nasty in terms of how that is gene and its allies good thing the civilians and leaving them absolutely no way to go i spoke to at least seven activists who had gathered in one room and developing a few stories on the ground they said more than ninety percent of the people this is of course that on the summation ninety percent of the people just want to leave the problem here is the regime is not even allowing them to leave is not opening

a single passage where you know them and civilians sick people all of those who need full of humanitarian aid able to escape now do you then why do you want. to question as this is very close to damascus it's the easiest and the shortest way to basically access the mosque is that it does not want any presence of any kind of or any kind of opposition forces to be close to the mosque because they want to make this final bloody. seven years before it against their own people so we are expecting the worse honestly and they seem to be very determined on they can get any color and this is what the u.s. according to their statement figures i've not had died in turkey for us thank you very much. now the deadly assault on the east of hot air comes as fighting looks set to intensify on another front as well this time on the country's north on the

border with turkey a turkish president rajnath a a bear to one says he plans to lay siege to offer and that is in the northern part of syria that's after holding talks with russia and iran to stop the deployment of syrian government forces in the region turkey first launched its offensive against kurdish militia in a free last month. an entire town in mourning this is become a familiar sight enough rain in recent weeks with residents regularly attending mass funerals for kurdish fighters killed in clashes with turkish troops. it's against this backdrop that syrian state t.v. reported on the move to change the dynamic of the fighting the news anchor of this bulletin announcing that militias allied to the syrian government would soon arrive in a free in to help kurdish forces push back the turkish offensive. meanwhile

in government held aleppo just south of a free syrian kurds have been demonstrating against the turkish offensive and in support of why peachey front is many of whom can be seen in the city. i know there is a syrian army and we are one of the syrian people and we are one we are all one and we have one will. during a visit to jordan the turkish foreign minister said a deal wouldn't affect his country's resolve. before to my future most all of my future if the syrian regime really does enter our freedom to cleanse kurdish militia then there's no problem however if it comes in to protect them then nothing and nobody can deter and stop the turkish army it's very clear. operation always branch into our free names to cleanse these areas from terrorists. said it will tell you look at turkey is keen to avoid

a kurdish stronghold on its border with syria so its own forces launched a major military offensive into a frame last month in a bid to expel the kurdish trying to control the region the offensive has further complicated an already bewildering web of alliances and rivalries in syria. we have with us she is the president of the european center for kurdish studies here in berlin thank you for joining us in our studio today we heard turkey's president ed was saying that he's talked to russia he's talked to iran and he's managed to stop the syrian government from its plans to send its own troops into this region northern syria into austrian who are the real power brokers here well you already mentioned the real power brokers i think this is turkey on the one hand and russia and iran arms which are provided by the united states in the syrian part of kurdistan so turkey wants to get rid of them this is why i freeness so important for turkey really the united states on the other hand which also one of the power

brokers of course they don't test no specific interest enough really really i mean they are military bases are not enough but they are in money and they are in the just euro so they will. just let everybody do what people really want to do there i think then b.s. russia which is supporting the syrian regime of course but on the other hand if the syrian regime takes a friend or not it's not of great importance for four for russia and iran again of course they also have an alliance with the u.k. with the y. p.g. but again it's not the region which is important for them in the middle of all this is free and what is going to happen if nobody steps in to help the kurds there well i think if the syrian regime doesn't get in now i think that turkey will stay there and try to get rich off the p.k. k. so if you have a look on afridi who is living there we see that we have about three hundred fifty thousand people living in

a free and. well yes to billions of of course civilians. and in the religious interestingly about one hundred thousand of them not kurds but arabs mostly refugees of course so this is the civilian population and then we have the y.p. gee they are the most syrian military branch of the p.k. which is for several years administering the region and many of the currents living there particularly would like to get rid of the y. p.g. because some of it doesn't have a good record on human rights but of course they don't want to have turkey in there and they don't want to have the regime in there too but we've seen these very dramatic images earlier from eastern how to if there's a siege by turkish forces are we going to see the same thing happen enough rain actually i don't think so i mean you never know of course but until today turkey didn't go forward as for example the syrian regime did and they didn't go forward as for example in aleppo they didn't just bomb everything from

a. president of the european center for kurdish studies thank you for joining us thank you. now to some other stories making news around the world iran says it has located the wreckage of a plane that crashed into a mountain two days ago with sixty five people on board rescue workers will have to recover bodies from the debris by foot due to the rough terrain records show the plane only recently resumed service after spending six years in storage. in mozambique at least seventeen people have died after they were buried in a landslide of garbage authorities say heavy rain caused a mountain of trash dump in the capital to collapse on to surrounding houses officials believe more bodies could still be buried under the debris. authorities have warned new zealand south island to take precautions ahead of a powerful storm the remnants of cycling which battered tongo and samoa last week are expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain flights to and from the capital

wellington have been canceled. and in the u.s. students at the florida high school where a gunman killed seventeen people gathered on monday for a vigil they also organized an effort to urge lawmakers to pass stronger gun control a group of nearly one hundred students plan to lobby state officials for tighter regulations. now germany's right wing populist party the alternative for germany or a.f.d. has overtaken the social democrats for the first time in a national opinion poll that polls for the daily newspaper billed found that if an election were held now sixteen percent of voters would support the a.f.d. compared to fifteen point five percent would vote for the social democrats and that's party's numbers have been in free fall since the national election in september. political correspondent thomas sparrow is tracking the story for us hi thomas we have a far right wing party that's now the stricken second strongest rather in germany

according to this poll this must be a shock for the established parties. it is sunni but we have to understand two key points when we think about this survey the first one is just only one out of many surveys that are carried out in germany most other surveys actually still put the social democrats behind the conservatives and the f.t. in third place and in fact this polling institute has been described in german media as being close to the a if the so on the one hundred has to be taken carefully but on the other hand it does reflect a wider trend in germany namely that crises that we've seen germany's traditional parties the conservatives on the one hand the social democrats on the other and at the same time obviously the rise of the on to immigrant let's not forget that the i.f.t. and the german parliament for the very first time in september and they did so by becoming the third biggest political force in the german parliament so certainly we

have to see all these elements together when we try and understand this how has this anti immigrant party managed to continue gaining ground. they do so essentially sumi by tapping into people's fears on a wide range of areas obviously their key topic has been immigration that's the main strategy goes way beyond only migration they obviously reject what they believe is the establishment traditional political parties and they have been tapping into fia's among the german population on a wide range of areas attracting voters from those established parties and also people who previously didn't go to vote in national elections so certainly that explains the rise of the a if the here in germany one of those established parties thomas is the social democrats why are they struggling so much to convince voters essentially because they lost profile after being called in to grand coalition with with angela merkel i'm going to most conservatives took the benefits if you will of

a grand coalition where whereas the social democrats were seen as the minor party one that wasn't able to to pas many proposal though they did manage to pass proposals but the credit was taken by the conservatives and they lost part of their their profile if you will the social democrats were seen as the home of germany's working class and that's something that's if we look at regional elections for example they have certainly lost to a certain extent so the key element when we try to understand the social democrats is precisely that they seem to have lost their profile they seem to have lost that key word of the name social according to many people who who look at the party very closely. political correspondent thomas fair reporting for us thank you thomas. to the winter olympics now were an ice hockey player has failed a doping test in chiang slovenia and yeah glitch tested positive for the prohibited

substance and overall used to treat asthma and bronchitis now and in competition task who has been accept who has accepted the charge has been suspended from competing in the remainder of the games and will leave the olympic village within twenty four hours. reminder now of our top stories at this hour the united nations as war in syrian government forces to stop their assault on the rebel held enclave of eastern hotel near damascus the syrian observatory for human rights says the government air raids there have killed nearly one hundred fifty people since monday . and germany's right wing populist party the alternative for germany has overtaken the social democrats for the first time in a national opinion poll that news comes just before the s.p.d. begins a critical vote on whether to join a coalition government with chancellor merkel conservatives. whiskey and orange juice could a trade war be brewing between the u.s. and the european union over those products. coming right out.

and why. a trip airplane. seventeen thousand kilometers in six weeks. to strangers.