six people are confirmed dead and eight injured in a shooting at a navy yard in washington civilians and police officers are among the victims more than one gunman is believed to have carried out the attack. a u.n. report on syria says there's no doubt that chemical weapons were used in an attack in august this is russia's foreign minister says the syrian opposition should be made to sit down for peace talks with the government. and under fire r.t. continues its series of reports from the heart of the syrian war this time our correspondent joins syrian troops dodging sniper fire in a damascus suburb. welcome

you're watching r.t. coming to you live from moscow. now six people have been confirmed dead and eight injured after a shooting at a navy yard in washington d.c. let's get more now from our. at the scene thanks for joining us what more can you tell us what's the latest. sure while i'm here on m. street in second you can still hear the helicopters flying overhead me this is still very active scene so a few blocks from the navy yard it's been around since seventy nine is the oldest on shore establishment for the navy in a roughly eight twenty am police responded to an active shooting here now all we know so far is that there's been multiple people shot i've heard the same reports of six people confirmed dead but police wouldn't give us any details other than to say there are multiple bodies still inside fatalities we know that one police

officer was shot is in stable condition that's where the shooter there's one shooter still inside who's dead is deceased but police are saying that there's a possibility there could be two more shooters on the loose they were described as a white male wearing khaki military gear and possibly a black male fifty years old wearing all of drab military gear they don't know if these are active military or they're just dressed as military and of course this is unconfirmed whether these people had anything to with or not but police are still being very cautious saying this is still an active criminal investigation all the streets are closed down lots of police presence still now this instance this involves the military there is heightened awareness around washington d.c. in the president obama made a statement shortly just a little bit ago here's what he had to say. these are men and women who want to work doing their job protecting all of us they're patriots and they know the dangers of serving abroad but today they faced the unimaginable violence.

that they wouldn't have expected here at all. and then we're back here i spoke with what i witnessed here and she said that she was in the cafeteria she heard three shots polish four more shots seven shots the shooter was on the fourth floor shooting down into the cafeteria she fled the building with others we should have another press briefing here in the next two hours and we'll stick around and see what the latest is. ok thank you sam sam sites reporting live from the scene of the shooting in washington thank you. well for more reaction on the situation last night cross to gordon he's the senior editor of veterans today website mr duff thanks for coming on to say the saving it's still not clear how many shooters were involved and they're all reports one of

them was a navy employee. in your opinion what she would line of thinking on this what could have been the night save for such an attack well we have the same report that the only one dead individual is a is a navy civilian employee this is an unusual base tutor since it's a long with being the headquarters facility for the navy and marine corps it also includes a number of museums ships on display much of this facility is very much open to the public and not just that it's a major social gathering place and we call it watering hole for though the junior washington establishment a lot of the white house people the head over the clubs the military clubs there for the evening and drink. so this is a it's a high sensitivity target because it's a it's a center for washington's social see. the facility itself it's a very soft target anyone can get in and out. it's fairly easy to carry

a weapon on to an american military base frankly it's not against in most cases it's considered illegal. it's too early to speculate on this is an act of terrorism . because of the appearance of the suspects because of the contradictory information you know we could very easily head on to. the one place we can certainly go to the propensity for violence and mass shootings we've seen in the united states that we know is a serious problem and this fits a new mosaic that. can easily make one question what causes so many of these incidents in american society and you say that is it is very hard to be specific at the moment but talking generally about security in the u.s. is there a failing that actually the government should be doing more to improve security given that this is another machine. well the the issue we have i think is that we

have a massive amount of security in places where it's highly visible where the threats are really very very low they're done for appearance sake only. america is it is a country with maybe two hundred million or more privately owned weapons. the idea of increasing security in the united states the people are very much against it they're tired of twelve years of being followed catalogue wiretapped apparently all our mail being read. people are tired of that and there is no amount of violence that's going to bring the american people to a point where they're going to want more government more watching more security more big brother and on a wider perspective do you think people might question even us foreign policy is as a motivation behind these attacks who do stress again we do not know the full picture it'll but presumably this is something that could well be debated well i

wouldn't necessarily put in a shooting like this at this point down to america's foreign policy but there have never been feelings in foreign policy it's hard to see never with the united states mind you but our current policies in syria clearly groundless an arrogant. they're an embarrassment to many of us their work with the military and intelligence. were flabbergasted at the behavior of but secretary kerry and president obama. ok thank you mr duff we do have to leave it that school duff senior editor of veterans today website thank you you're welcome. well let's continue to see follow this up we can talk to the defense consultant from birmingham in the u.k. he joins us live to. now last year the u.k.

did witness the murder of a british soldier on u.k. soil and now we're seeing an attack on a navy base in washington. in your opinion is this is this a trend well it has been established if it's a terrorist attack yet our but it wouldn't surprise me let's remember there's a mobile a u.s. naval ship outside syrian waters currently and it's a great coincidence that a major announcement was supposed to be held by the u.n. weapons inspectors today and all of a sudden there's a major attack in washington d.c. one of the more secure cities or supposedly secure cities in the world so every time this was to be a major announcement somewhere in the world an attack a major attack to explode saw is one wonders if this is a terrorist attack then how can they get into a. secure city and attack a naval base no less are but also all why on the day there's

a major announcement supposed to take place. i've just spoken to somebody there veteran from the u.s. who says that she curity actually on this on this site was quite soft g. think you'll expect to see a reaction from the u.s. government now perhaps to tighten security further across the u.s. we've had a big debate about n.s.a. surveillance but perhaps people might be siding with that man. yeah well let's remember everyone in the government from the president downwards everyone says the united states is secure no attacks have taken place for a very long time and all that sort of attack takes place in the u.s. naval base let's not forget fort hood where major nidal. allegedly or he's now been convicted for that. attack his fellow soldiers so. they are sure and says the u.s. government is providing to the american citizen that the nation is safe and they're

keeping the nation safe is really not not sticking well if you are claiming that you are providing security by attacking the nation's overseas let's remember this is a terrorist attack then they are providing arms to the same terrorists who are likely to come in the attack in mainland usa. ok thank you we should reemphasize of course that we do not know at this stage before these attacks are the motives behind the bit it's interesting to hear your opinions on possible motives thank you defense consultant from burning in in the u.k. thank you. thank you well a long awaited u.n. report confirms chemical weapons use in syria we'll tell you more about it and get some expert opinion on that after the break.

they all talk about language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports. for the no i will leave them to stay current to comment on your latter point. to carry out a car as i'm going to talk you know. thank you no more weasel words. when you made a direct question he prepared for a change when you thought you should be ready for our. freedom of speech and. the freedom to. kick right to see. her straight. and i think you're. reformers twitter. instagram.

d m o o o. o. o o welcome back the u.n. inspectors say they are certain that chemical weapons were used in syria on a large scale that was the conclusion of their report which has now been handed over to u.n. member states meanwhile russia's foreign minister says the syrian opposition should be forced to sit down for peace talks with the government. has more. the u.n. mission has now confirmed on equivocally and objectively that chemical weapons were used in syria on august twenty first in the area of a damascus suburb called the incident a war crime he told members of the security council that this report is the most significant confirm use of chemical weapons against civilians since saddam hussein

used them in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight the u.n. chief said ecological chemical and medical samples that were collected in syria give the u.n. convincing evidence that surface to surface missiles were used during the during the conflict on august twenty first and that the chemical weapons that were were used contained sarin gas and he believes he believes he says that this report proves that the chemical weapons were were used killed hundreds of civilians there in children this is a report that the international community has been waiting on for some weeks now now the u.n. inspectors were mandated by ki-moon to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones but the inspectors are not responsible to say who used the chemical weapons now the syrian rebels and their western supporters including the

united states the u.k. and france blame president bashar al assad's government for using the chemical weapons in the first assad government insists that the attack was carried out by the syrian opposition this report comes at a very interesting time at a time when we're russia and the united states just brokered a deal that has syria agreeing to disclose its full chemical arms arsenal within a week and eliminate that entire arsenal by made twenty fourteen russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said that he believes that the syrian opposition should be forced to come to the negotiating table in order to proceed with the geneva two peace talks mr lavrov said that the assad. overman has already agreed to diplomatic efforts without any preconditions but the same has not been heard or seen from the syrian opposition now russia the united states all the big powers involved have all said is that the syrian crisis cannot be resolved militarily it could only be resolved diplomatically and that's why russia is coming forward and say that the

west should be putting more effort in convincing the syrian rebels to commit to the geneva two peace talks because thus far if the threat of military strike coming from western powers is still hanging over the head of the syrian government russia believes that this keeps the opposition from coming to the negotiating table so russia here is pushing for the u.s. and its european allies to work with the syrian opposition convincing them to now take part in a diplomatic dialogue that could end the syrian crisis so again we have somewhat of a stalemate and we'll see what will continue in the days ahead because there is supposed to be a u.n. security council rusedski resolution. voted on. well let's bring in home rich to britain gordon to talk about this because he used to be the commander of the british military chemical defense regiment here he is thanks very much for coming on to the program firstly what impact do you think that this u.n. report will have on the disarmament process and getting rid of assad's chemical weapons because we know where they have been you know blame has been attached.

well i hope it will have a very positive impact because i think the deal brokered by russia in the us is really our only hope at the moment of removing chemical weapons on the syrian battlefield. and out of the country and also preventing proliferation which will is just as worrying to russia as it is to all other countries around the world i think very important unequivocally as your reporter said you know sarin has been used thirty four out of thirty six blood samples tested positive for sarin eighty percent of victims tested positive for sarin and also all the environmental samples i think what's important as well is the scale of this attack reading into the report up to eight rockets fourteen rockets with a capacity of fifty six liters of sarin that's three hundred fifty liters at a minimum so this is a very large attack however the arsenal that still remains within the regime is

hugely significant perhaps up to a million liters so it's in all of our interests to get these chemical weapons removed from the syrian battlefield and destroyed so that any political or no use could be used on that in this conflict further. as it important to the rest of the world it won't be proliferation used by terrorists around the world and you have a lot of expertise in chemical weapons what are the chances do you think that in nine months time this stockpile of chemical weapons in syria will be gone. well the timelines that the russian and u.s. . policies put forward are very very stringent and it's going to be difficult to stick to them however if we stick to those timelines and there are so many variables that could be stable this issue one accepts but we stick to them i think

it is possible i personally believe these chemical weapons again need to be removed from syria the forty five sites that have been named in regime held areas to actually destroy them in sick she was the russians the americans have found destroying those that their own chemical weapons takes considerable time twenty years in the u.s. case so i think we can move them out of syria to a safe location in the region and then. bury them in a deep hole and come back to them when the situation allows or start dismantling them there so if we take them out of syria that made twenty fourteen timeline i think is achievable but it's going to be hugely demanding the report states that the warheads on the rockets used in the attack can either be original or improvised so there's that point to the rebel involvement in the attack do you think. well i'm not sure that it does i think to put this sort of weaponry she gather it

is very sophisticated handling chemical weapons particularly sarin which has a not number of precursors reach need to be mixed just for you see you need a pretty high level of science in the first sophisticated set up to be able to do that or i don't know whether i haven't heard whether the opposition have this level of technology to be able to do it and i think the other the scale of it two hundred fifty liters three hundred fifty liters three hundred fifty kilograms a sour and you know that that's an awful lot we've heard that some of this sarin might may have felt fallen in some terrorist hands now that you had these but not it not at this scale so i think at this stage very unlikely and all that detail in the report really focuses on the regime and when you look at the trajectory as the mass of the rockets which the report details are carrying in the south easterly direction over the outside misgiving it ranges of three to four kilometers again

that would suggest that those rockets originated from regime controlled areas ok thank you very much we have grown at a time but that's why mr breckon gordon former commander of the british chemical defense regiment thank you live from the u.k. thank you. now the syrian opposition will meanwhile get more help from western governments as announced by the french foreign minister and his counterparts from the u.s. and the u.k. and a british defense study has found that nearly half of those fighting against the assad regime are either jihadists or hardline islamist well here's how the number of opposition fighters breaks down in that the french report one hundred thousand rebel fighters the split into many different factions and these include al qaeda linked groups with about ten thousand jihad is fighting amongst them the hard line islamists in syria are similar but they are focused solely on the syrian war global islam mr struggle and the rule so moderate islamists which means that

secular or nationalist fighters are in the minority meanwhile turkey says that they shot down a syrian helicopter which entered its airspace the conflict is raging on the ground in syria to his memory if an option is report from a damascus suburb where she's witnessed syrian government forces battling the rebels. now and barrett just a few kilometers from the central damascus it used to be a nice and beautiful very picturesque town where the population of up to three hundred thousand people but it's been torn by clashes between the governmental forces and the rebels from most two years now the result you can see everything is ruined the residents left the only people we can meet here either the army all the militants. fighting against my guys like in. the now we're going with the army to one of the operation. itself or the capital is sponsored

a powerful militant belt around damascus known as eastern ghouta the scene of recent fierce clashes it is also where a chemical attack last month brought international resonance in its wake all weapons smuggled to syria through jordan in the south come through here providing local militants with a secure supply line for. this is what the syrian war looks like today the urban battlefield provides dense cover and a network of underground tunnels also shields the militants there is no defined front line and you don't know when your enemy's watching. the syrian army soldiers say they could be snipers there and they pulled curtains like this one just to protect to prevent star players from seeing what's going on here. the simple system helps

save many lives every day where it doesn't work soldiers just strong. in a full two minutes with travel from one district to another we fall the army as you can see through the buildings through the holes in the walls like this one hole this one they're everywhere. i know i. can do you think i'm going to. carry you through during mornings he needs. work life. in this war snipers are from both sides of the frontline. is what they do most of the time waiting for the enemy.

in office assures me the map they update every day this is where we are the militants are in this big building the army liberates the town street by street building by building very slowly and very carefully has always just addressed militants to surrender their arms promise you it will be sweet sometimes to leave their weapons and try to escape but sometimes they refuse and we have no other choice but the quiet of an american strike seems to be on the back burner at least for now but syrian civil war goes on and on. raif notion r.t. damascus suburbs syria. and you can follow me on twitter she has the latest developments from the fighting in syria right now she is tweeting about what is going on in the battle around damascus. i am. on my. let's have a look now at other news making headlines around the world at the moment and sound

which teams are attempting to right the ground at a luxury cruise ship the costa concordia eleven story line which is roughly the length of three football pitches can at the moment be seen rising slowly from the water the accident killed thirty same paper when the ship ran aground off the italian island of victoria the operation is expected to last at least twelve hours . six nights of protest the stamboul has resulted in scuffles between police and anti-government demonstrators rubber bullets and water cannon were used to disperse the crowds the demonstrations began after the death of a twenty two year old student involved in a sit in against a construction project affecting his university. will stay with r.t. for the moment because up next it's our sports update with kate.

we talked before about people getting in trouble throughout the usa just for gardening in fact according to the christian science monitor a couple of florida has been fined five hundred dollars a day until they dig up their vegetable garden which is on their own property and mediately people who write these articles draw comparisons to communist russia where people weren't allowed to grow their own food unless the state allowed it yes the revolutionary period in russia forced agriculture to change rapidly and often against the will of many of those involved and this did lead to starvation revolution isn't fun but what about after that well stalin and khrushchev gave out a lot of doctors which are private summer houses where people guard and also there were markets in the soviet union where people could bring the food they grew to sell to see all these pictures behind me these are people in the soviet union

selling food they produced privately and legally but there were some moments in soviet history when there were some taxes placed on the sale of your personal goods from your personal labor which according to russian website history of taxes was around ten percent whether you love or hate communism more than anything doesn't matter this half truth about shooting soviet gardeners burns like wildfire on the american side of the internet the real truth is that in fact when the us government for every reason in various forms clamps down on private gardens it isn't the same as communism but it's actually technically worse than communism for the majority of its lifespan where you could guard it up as you like excluding the brutal revolutionary period but that's just my opinion.

hello welcome to the all tasteful show i'm kate partridge and i'll be bringing you half an hour of sport from russia under around the world and here's some of what's to come. for brazil russia regain top spot in group back after seeing of israel three one in the world cup qualifier in st petersburg. while up and running moscow holds its first major american as the organizers look to make the race an international event. and old fire as we look ahead to the big m.m.a. rematch is my little bitch and alexander you go yachting cap prepare for another titanic clash. but will first learn and russia coach fabio capello says he'll retire after completing his mission with russia the sixty seven year old italian spoke after helping the national side we got in the lead in group f. following a three one victory at home to israel in the world cup qualifier in some petersburg

off a slow start at the trustee stadium the home side came out for the second half with all guns blazing the city but as it ski breaking the deadlock soon after the restart. alex sounds like a korean doubles that lead just a couple of minutes later the twenty two year old posting his third goal into lurches. then with sixty minutes to go a handful so russia awarded a penalty the man should all copy hits the woodwork that's denise shook off still got the job done well a last gasp headed by ed on zahavi proved just a consolation for israel as russia rolled out three one winners. and that result puts russia top of group bad one point clear of christiane are now those portugal with too much has to go with russia travelling to minnows luxembourg and azerbaijan next month while sweat the netherlands qualified for the world cup finals as winners of group day with a two no win in under a full it's off to the.