this is news coming to you live from berlin could it be the final battle against islamic state u.s. backed forces are close to ousting the jihadists from their last stronghold in syria but to threaten turkish intervention is putting victory in doubt also coming up keeping the planes flying with one hundred days to go before the u.k. is due to leave the european union the e.u. steps up its planning in case britain with no deal.

lost his legal leader's. dusseldorf opens up the title race could it be an opportunity for defending champion spy and munich. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us american backed forces are close to gaining control of the last syrian territory held by so-called islamic state syrian democratic forces the made up of kurdish fighters have captured the town of keene and are now in the process of clearing out islamist fighters in the lies in the valley of the euphrates river close to the border with iraq it's the final urban stronghold of the jihad just militia which once controlled substantial territory in syria and iraq but as the mainly kurdish inches closer to final victory over ah yes in syria. salt against the kurds.

sent this report from the front line. people have escaped the clutches of the so-called islamic state. that stranded in a camp two hundred kilometers from the front line. traumatized exhausted but free after days of rain and cold weather the conditions are atrocious but it's better than being under the guns of the. banks of the euphrates. as human shields so the warplanes can't attack from the sky. planted mines everywhere and they don't want to let anyone escape. or. they're criminals dirty thieves they took everything from us our money as well and then they left. the battle for the last bit of

territory held by yes is a tough one. the militia has lost nearly all the land it held was around five thousand fighters are putting up fierce resistance their leader abu bakr al baghdadi is thought to be among them. dozens of members of the s.t.'s have been killed in recent weeks and that's despite our support from the united states and other allies. they've put booby traps and mines everywhere we were advancing but slowly and we have to take care to avoid civilian casualties. this is what's left by the fighting the streets of hygene the former terrorist stronghold most of the people who live here have fled. the mainly kurdish s.d.f. has captured the center of the town and most of the outskirts from my ass. the

fighting is continuing in the surrounding villages to jihadists are still managing to stay john bush is a hit and run attacks. yes fighters try every day to attack our units and recapture the villages but we are pushing back with all we have. the american backed s.d.f. is now facing a potential enemy on another front. victory over the i.r.s. in the euphrates valley is within reach. but now turkey is threatening to march into kurdish controlled areas on its southern border and caressed sees the kurdish fighters as terrorists. these threats help yes precisely now when we're making gains in the fight for hygiene turkey threatens an offensive in northern syria. and that's bad news for the people still in the i ask control not everyone has been able to flee thousands are still trapped in the last

pocket of i asked territory. for some analysis now let's bring in ghettos steinberg he's a middle east expert from the german institute for international insecurities fares here in berlin good see again so we just heard about the retaking of the stronghold how gene in that report can we safely say now geater that islamic state has been defeated in syria militarily it has been defeated it doesn't control controlled territory anymore no towns but it did still. on the ground the coalition forces count between counted between four and six thousand fighters in iraq and syria combined before the latest events so it is still an actor four to six thousand is quite a quite a big organization it's it's it's a military act no it's a terrorist act of two to be reckoned with in the coming years and we've heard about islamic state in syria and iraq also in afghanistan to

a degree what about the leadership of islamic state do we know where they are and what they're going to do next when the iraqis tell me that the leadership especially the caylee if but i he more. he that he is in syria he has gone on the ground he's severely injured and i believe that he will either be caught or killed in the coming months but still the organization is out there not only in iraq in syria as you have just hinted at but also in afghanistan in libya on the sinai in yemen so the network is still out there. reports suggest that turkish forces in in syria could end up attacking the kurdish forces who have played an instrumental role in defeating islamic state in syria why would turkey do that when turkey has an interest in defeating islamic state to well turkey has a priority in syria and that is fighting the p.k. k.

and the turkish government assumes that there is no difference between the ruling p y d the big of the united states and the p.k. k. and that is why they fight the kurds and not isis but that has been one of the one of the standards of middle east politics in recent years turkey doesn't fight isis fight these let me state as it should it doesn't take the organization seriously it concentrates on the kurds and i think that's a major mistake threatening all security as well get it thank you so much for your announcer's good or steinberg from the middle east middle east expert from the german institute for international insecurity affairs here in berlin. now to some of the other stories making news around the world today belgium's prime minister charlotte michel has resigned after a failed attempt to lead a minority government he decided to quit after he was unable to get enough support

for a united nations agreement on international migration. the german government has approved a bill to help businesses employ skilled workers from outside the european union the proposed law would ease residency requirements and restrictions on hiring foreign workers germany's labor market has more than a million unfilled positions. and berlin has marked the second anniversary of the terror attack that left twelve people dead and dozens wounded in the german capital and on december nineteenth two thousand and sixteen a radicalized tunisian man hijacked a truck killed its driver and plowed into a crowded christmas party. well there are one hundred days left before the united kingdom is due to leave the european union and the e.u. is stepping up its no deal bragg's it planning the e.u. commission is publishing legislation due to come into force if no withdrawal

agreement is reached between the e.u. and britain now this legislation will cover eight sectors one of those areas is aviation the commission is expected to propose legislation to ensure that flights can still arrive in airports from the u.k. even though in a new deal scenario the u.k. would be outside the engine space legislation is expected to apply until the end of twenty nine. well for more on e.u. preparations for a no deal bragg's it let's talk to our brussels correspondent. we just heard about aviation what other key areas would be affected in this scenario. terry you mentioned those eight sectors and there's a number of proposals in these sectors clearly finance top of the agenda there as well apart from aviation because very close ties here for example regarding the

clearing process when it when it comes to a eurozone currency there's a lot of things happening in london which the you ryssdal relies on then of course there is the civil rights and trade you have issues like customs so there will be a proposals on how to guarantee your continued visa free travel how to get guarantees and securities of for ex-pats e.u. k. ex-pats living in the european union but to be clear all these proposals are time limited they are there they can be ended unilaterally so they're not the small little deals that some breaks the tears are now thinking about when they talk about a managed breck's that something they would like to see in the future. or hearing a lot of speculation about how much damage a no brakes scenario would would do you know deal breakers it would do on how much pain would a new deal breaks it costs. other pain is is tremendous of course it's the

insecurity that no one knows exactly how how much the damage would be but it would be massive there's no doubt about it one of the key problems of course already of a no deal breaks it is that you have no transition phase you do not have those twenty one months that would come into place if a deal could be reached at this point and so time to find a new relationship so what you would have is those contingency plans that the e.u. now put forward but let's be clear they put those plans forward in their own interests not looking at the interest of the u.k. at all so there was consequences of an economic brecht's that if you have long queues at customs if you have shortages regarding medicine all these will not be addressed on the u.k. side it's only the e.u. making sure that things for them run at least that they vote the worst consequences but it will not be a smooth pass after bracks it garrick thank you so much t w correspondent gary

tuchman for us there in brussels. bonus legal leaders borussia dortmund suffered their first defeat of the season on tuesday night falling to fortuna dusseldorf two one because both took the lead early on with look of. breaking quickly and that is seventh goal of the season and after the break a ferocious strike from john simm a double their advantage to to go was an old one back. but it was through a process of but it was little too little too late as the don't held on to record a shock to one victory over the leak of leaders. and with the russian government losing that much overnight defending champions but munich have a chance to get their title challenge back on track they face life seek later

saving and victory would bring them to within six points of dortmund the top of the table. haven't lost their thirst to retain the bundesliga title this season yet they have had some hick ups against some unusual suspects on match day twelve promoted side door for managed a three three draw in munich which gave the defending champions a serious wake up call. environs following home match the defending champions were wide awake eighteen through nuremberg no problem thanks to their informed ace robert levin don't ski despite their current momentum byron's nico kovacs knows rb live seek are a viable opponent you know that to shut off your lot sick basically play the same way as us and i quickly when they're talking i have a striker is capable of causing problems when they find space behind the defense. that he could to come in rb life six front line scoring duo use of postmen and

t.-mo vanna each scored a brace last time out the tandem will be gunning to help life seek leap frog buyer in the table. is is. possible to points in munich if we could take all three points not be very happy. if fail to take advantage of by beating leipsic even more pressure will mouth. which. well sacking coach just a marine you know manchester united have announced that former players. will take the reins until the end of the season the former striker played for almost a decade at united and during himself to fans after scoring the winner in the famous nine hundred ninety nine champions league victory over by in munich has

honed his coaching skills in his homeland winning norway's top domestic league twice with molten you're watching news coming to you live from berlin we have more for you coming up in just a moment monica will be here with all the latest business. five minutes.