over sixty people i killed in iraq as all kind and it forces stepped up their brutal campaign with a wave of bombings targeting crowded neighborhoods. are now attempting to look at syria from their spring throughout the entire region and put you right smack at the foot of southern europe a former pentagon official tells r.t. about where al qaida is expansion is heading. and president obama is accused of directly encouraging u.s. intelligence to spy on chancellor merkel's phone calls a claim that the n.s.a. vigorously denies. the. right to

a live from moscow you're watching our journey with me to one would say it's good to have your company with us to do our top story this hour a series of bomb attacks across iraq has left at least sixty six people dead and dozens more wounded most of the blast targeted shi'ite muslim districts around the capital baghdad the iraqi government blames the daily attacks on sunni islamists linked to al qaida let's not take a look at how the terrorist network became so powerful now based in afghanistan from one thousand nine hundred sixty two thousand and one al qaida was under the protection of the taliban it was also present in pakistan the jihadist group began an expansion after washington launched its war on terror in response to the nine eleven attacks prompted by the u.s. invasion in iraq the country's radical islam is trying to al-qaeda in two thousand and four but by two thousand and several a powerful terror network united under the name al-qaeda in the islamic. started

expanding through north africa the yemeni and saudi branches merged two years later in two thousand and nine to former al qaeda in the arabian peninsula the network has been gaining ground across the region since the arab spring unfolded with new cells emerging in the countries gripped by and including syria now in syria radicals are now fighting against the regime of bashar al assad. can investigate more on this. u.s. intelligence officials speaking anonymously of course say they're not concerned that al qaeda affiliated groups in syria are shifting some of their focus from toppling bashar al assad to launching external operations against the west one u.s. lawmaker pointed out that's exactly what happened even ganesan which led to nine eleven they are now focused on fighting assad but very soon they'll be focused on something else we have michael here a former pentagon official with me mr maloof where are the. groups headed in your

opinion the. through our. forces that are there. are now attempting to look at syria in the long term to be under a caliphate and their spring throughout the entire region when you look at a map of the whole area stream from the arabian peninsula to all the way across north africa and into the magreb right. at the foot of southern europe and that is. the strategy is to ultimately move into europe according to various estimates more than ten thousand committed members are operating just along syria's eastern border with iraq it's reported to be more than the number of jihad is in iraq during the u.s. led occupation worth mentioning it was the u.s. invasion that brought terror into iraq this graph from the national consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism shows the spike of terrorist

attacks in iraq following the u.s. invasion the u.s. now shrugs at all these terror that iraq has to deal with every day calling it well pains of democracy libya and similar attitudes the u.s. helped to kill qaddafi now the countries involved in chaos and terror again you hear pains of democracy but as these extremist groups in different countries become more and more organized as a network it's difficult to ignore them on. that's spreading through the region the u.s. thinks drones are the perfect tool to deal with terrorists they say drones are the solution but on the receiving end those drone strikes are seen as acts of terror when they kill innocent people and they help terrorists recruit more terrorists most recently to report came out by amnesty international and human rights watch they looked into u.s. strikes in pakistan and yemen human rights watch found that in the strikes that they have investigated seventy percent of those who died were civilians washington

says they've decimated al qaeda solution but it seems al-qaeda has metastasized and continue spreading with drawn strikes and brewing civil wars in washington i'm going to. we discuss the situation with journalist and broadcaster neil clark he believes the u.s. is simply not interested in curbing our influence in the region the fact is that if al qaeda did exist it have to be invented it serves an awful lot of good purposes for united states to push its again to around the world if the u.s. was really serious about al qaeda and wanted to deal with it they would do they wouldn't be supporting al-qaeda in syria they would be wanting a secular regime in syria to be toppled that they wouldn't be wanting regime change in libya would be. in turmoil in iraq is directly linked to the rise of al-qaeda in syria. there is no coincidence that there's been this huge spike in violence in syria and iraq at the center of al-qaeda groups are going from iraq to syria for

syria to iraq the whole new version is in turmoil because of the united states policies and this is not a mistake this is it is a mistake to think it's a mistake if you like because whenever the neo-cons come on to talk about iraq of course they very rarely watch talk about iraq they always like to quote while tony blair and george bush wanted well but they made a few mistakes along the way that's not the whole of the exercise was to destroy iraq as a country to never again be a threat to regional powers that the us backs in that region the same with syria and as you heard as militants to keep up their war of attrition against syria's government a growing number of civilians are volunteering for military service. my family worries them more but nothing is more precious than our country the homeland where i was raised coming up we need a syrian woman who is putting her life on the line to different her family and her country. president obama is facing some embarrassing

revelations in the german media reports the say the us president had full knowledge that the n.s.a. was tapping chancellor merkel's a mobile phone despite his claims to the contrary was allegedly briefed by the head of the n.s.a. about the same time scheme up back in two thousand and ten and even ordered a full dossier on the german leader marco made her outraged here in a recent phone call to obama she said monitoring practices would be a breach of trust if confirmed the chance also said that spying amount friends does not work obama apologize said it's just the that he had no previous knowledge that the n.s.a. had been tracking her merkel had been targeted by the agency for over a decade according to the latest new documents european leaders now pushing for a new spy code of conduct with the u.s. but fred rodel from the international advocacy group young voices says that that would be am likely to restrain the n.s.a. . i don't think that these proposed anti spy treaties or no spy laws will have

a big impact these secret surveillance agencies have grown to an extent that it's really hard to control them basically you would need have to heavily cut down all these surveillance agencies such as the n.s.a. or the cia to make actually actually sure that they don't have the power and the resources anymore to snoop on everyone around the world i mean the latest from edward snowden shows that the n.s.a. intercepted sixty eight million phone calls in spain in the space of just one month spanish media say that in december last year u.s. intelligence officers numbers and climbing locations all over the country now the government has summoned the u.s. ambassador to the allegations but while the case builds up against american intelligence fred rhodes says european agencies shouldn't be let off the. it's not just about the end it's also about. surveillance agencies in europe such as the

british law and even the german ones which do not allow citizens to keep their privacy their snooping on each other i would not be surprised if there will be further revelations on other countries spying on each other's leaders that's just a dynamic we now live from the twenty first century. germany is also sending its top intelligence officials to the u.s. is seeking explanations to so how much damage is being caused to relations between the two countries and what kind of fallout should we expect that's what we're asking the u.s. on our website poll so far almost forty percent of you say that the e.u. will react by developing a highly encrypted communication for its leaders and a quarter of you say that they expect europe to restrict access to private data and raise calls for american businesses while almost the same number says just that obama will apologize and offer to supply may be on the u.k. prime minister david cameron instead and just around ten percent say that germany

will retaliate by offering asylum to edward snowden as well as julian assange you can have your say at r.t. dot com if you haven't done so already. a surprising solution to london's housing crisis could be on its way. with predictions of a looming housing crisis with rents at an all time high in the u.k. right now we're going to be telling you why some people it's hardly a way for brits and that turning to the shipping container is the solution that's the story coming up later in the program you're watching r t do stay with us we'll be right back.

two years after the forced ouster of gadhafi by nato forces would you stand at the abyss the lack of a strong central government weak rule of law. and the endless violence in a country awash with weapons has resulted in libya facing a failed state status add to this the presence of islamic militants can things get any worse in libya. we speak your language does anything about the war not advance . the music programs in documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news the alternative angle is the stories. you hear. the spanish find out more visit actuality that.

we continue with our coverage of syria where the syrian conflict continues to take its toll on civilians some have decided to take matters into their own hands arches policy a med one young mother who's chosen to fight for our country's future miriam is getting ready for work like women around the world she enjoys putting on makeup before heading to the office but miriam's job is a little different to most the twenty three year old is heading to the syrian frontline it gives me great satisfaction being able to defend my country against terrorists who want to destroy it. it's strange to find women here in the line of fire even more so because maria is a mother whose sons are just four and six years old. i signed up because of them i'm not afraid anymore because i've stopped worrying we are in a state of war. but every day miriam sees the reality of war more than one hundred

thousand people most of them civilians killed the people who lived in these homes will have friends and family all of them have fled most of them will never return i . am most afraid when the water bombs fall in our posts and there is shrapnel if you days ago the terrorists launched rockets at our checkpoint their rockets are not accurate sadly they had a civilian building and many people died were rescued a few and carried them to hospital this used to be a school playground but children's laughter has long been drowned out by the whistling of bullets. and i was kidnapped twice the last time for two months they arrested me when i was in civilian clothes this is back to doug was cooperating with the army i did i did and luckily they eventually let me go but the risks facing a woman in uniform are often for greater than for her male counterparts several of miriam's female colleagues have been killed while held hostage often it's nothing

more than luck that separates the living from the did my family worries a lot but nothing is more precious than our country our homeland where i was raised to my children are very precious very prudent but my country has been moved say. oh and despite the price it's a job she's proud to wake up to each day and the bounds of women have been in the syrian army since the seventy's there's even a special military college for them but usually their jobs are administrative and logistic desperate times however cord for desperate measures pointlessly r.t. damascus. dozens of saudi arabia women caused a stir on the weekend by defying a ban on female drivers now want men inspired by the campaign came up with this.

and that clips gone viral over the past two days gathering over three million hits on you tube you can watch it and get the full back story on our website r.t. dot com. also they bluster the u.s. state department electronic communications this in a piece up next you know at this highly sensitive information check out report on that online. soaring rental costs putting a strain on a working londoners being blamed for the rise in homelessness in the british capital but a charity has come up with a novel solution to the problem archie sara further investigate when addressing the issue of the foldable housing one london charities been thinking outside the books but when it comes to the solution it's a little insight that counts meet the my i pad shipping container doubles as

a low cost. renting in longs and is to take chile expensive and once again we've seen rents hit record high so we're going to go up and take the consolidate and see what this is all about. thank you very much i had to go yes this is my palace yeah this is the my. desk here inside the my pants been designed to provide these who need it most with the food of all independent living and just certainty five pounds a week the my pad certainly cheap by london standards i think it's difficult for anybody right now to get. comfortable accommodation and a good price without you know paying extortionate amounts of the projects the brainchild of timothy paying. for this is essentially this is a shipping container full time this is a stupid. bread you discover over

a great big boat the projects already received planning permission and funding is expected to come from the greater london authority initially this project will be soley for young people the charity works with society just takes the. place to call for months of them because the moment they get into work but can't afford to live in a hostel and they can't afford to live anywhere else because doesn't make any moral or any economic sense. as an idea. is brilliantly innovative it's been designed as a quick fix now there's planning permission for thirty more things to be built next year but predictions say that if bracing continues at its current rate of building them by twenty twenty and we face a shortfall of two million homes in the case you can see the scale of the problem and it's why what started out as

a local temporary solution could end up becoming a more permanent fixture so r.t. london. the final touches of being married to the olympic facilities in sochi with just over three months she gave before the twenty fourteen winter olympic games russia's president is the right now and metta day with the new head of the international olympic committee but it will putin gave his assurances that all guests and compared to do so will be a major to feel welcome regardless of race or sexual orientation that's across. poles in sochi busy day in seoul she tell us more. yes well tomorrow tuesday marks one hundred days until the sochi winter olympics begin here in the black sea resort but on monday president vladimir putin began his day by putting a new transport a new transport hub in the city

a new train station that's going to be a transport hub it was a new state of the office and he opened it as you say with the new president of the international olympic committee thomas bach who has only really in the job for a month he's new to the role and this is his vote visit to sochi the opened. facility that transport before coming to the president's residence here in the sochi where they had a behind closed doors meeting but addressing some of the concerns president vladimir putin tried to allay some of those phase notably will the venues be ready on time the president has assured almost brought from the i.o.c. that the things will indeed be ready on time even the. opening ceremony which is having a really installed rest of the sports venue it's believed will be ready opening on february the seventh and as you mentioned there have also been those concerns in recent months about russia's what's known as the gay propaganda law the. way you

compromise nontraditional sexual relations to minors there have been campaigns to possibly even boycott the winter olympics banned some people are launching campaigns on social networks targeting the sponsors of the pics to try and try and boycott boycott the games and even put pressure on russia but as you say president vladimir putin has laid some of those for some of those face today saying that doesn't mean it's a nationality or sexual orientation everyone will be welcome in sochi when the games start. paula the other because really has been a remarkable journey we've all been following it obviously on r.t. dot com as well as here on now to bring is that the highlights of how the journey is going. well the journey is this the journey is still continuing one hundred twenty three days it's going to last of course started in moscow on october the seventh it's going to cross all three regions in russia it's hoped that

anyone who wants to be able to see the olympic flame on its journey will be able to do so it's going to be transported via various different methods as we know by foot by car by plane and even by reindeer and of course it is set to go to the international space station as well that's going to be taken up later next month in november to the r.s.s. it's the first time that such a feat will be attempted but the olympic torch relay is continuing its journey its inclusion grabbed the moment your son is making his way to kaliningrad and that's where it's going to be when we are over that one hundred day mark later on tuesday paula wanted to find out if you made it onto that train but i think i would have to leave that question for a little bit later as possible. giving us an update on what's happening there with the sorts of preparation two hundred twenty forty. one hundred days remaining.

days are flying. right back to syria now russia is pushing ahead with its mediation efforts trying to bring all sides to the negotiating table in geneva next month those plans have been dealt a setback by the so-called friends of syria meeting in london last week to discuss this i'm joined live by political analyst. from damascus and it's good to have you with us that the syrian rebels that seem determined to destroy the peace talks in geneva with nineteen opposition groups refusing to take part now what's the reason for that. obviously there is no interest among some opposition groups and the opposition. political process that would end the conflict whether the situation the actual military situation on the

ground or the expected results of the negotiated settlement for the syrian crisis is neither a promise many of these schools any place on the table so it is not true if you think that many of these groups are going to be opposed to political system until there is a notion of the syrian conflict one that leads to a political process that restore stability in the country naturally some of those groups also work under the auspices of various regional players and those who have no interest and the new international climate where an agreement has been set between the. different player isn't going to steve's russian opinion to get back to. a political resolution of the conflict

one that also sees the continuous presence of the current. president in one form or another. the syrian government submitted its plan to destroy its chemical weapons now it seems to be making major concessions how far would you what would you say that assad needs to go to when his western critics. i think is western critics are critical sometimes for the wrong reasons and this is why i don't think and many people here in damascus don't think that president assad can go far enough no matter how far he goes to win some of those quick. remind you that some of those very critics in the west of the government mr assad are support to the worst by all the target ones that are functional on the ground

at least if not publicly then by their silence and not criticizing their actions i think a great deal of what we hear coming out of some western capitals today is more or posturing before the negotiation process of negotiation than actual. home hard in the cornerstones of use of the continuous presence of a subsequent right here in syria i think they will eventually be soft in their tone and they will be less critical once the process becomes clearer the old parties consent to the so right now it's just i think the. geneva communiqué go she. was chairing. a higher position on the negotiation table so that you know you can find something to negotiate a compromise on thanks for the chemical weapons are concerned. short the

political analyst there. run out of time with you but thank you very much for your input on this story we're following it quite closely. a look now at some other news making headlines around the world is this the way in which is have been hit by if some five yes claiming the lives of a p.c. think of a teenage girl died when she crashed head on for the weekend and a man was killed when a tree to describe the disaster has caused extensive damage in london the way toppled quite a hit the capitol building in a white house run two hundred twenty thousand to homes have been left without power and several train lines have been caught up. in the south of france. police have used but tongs and tear gas on a rom seven hundred animal rights activists clashes erupted during a protest against a and i'm coming bullfighting festival spanish. held in many towns in southern france and dozens of schools also explaining. in

turkey police have fired tear gas and water cannon on a crowd of students outside of court and car way policemen accused of killing a demonstrator earlier this year is being tried in two thousand protesters gathered to voice the anger over the court's decision to elect. tens of parents by a video link up at the media say several people wait in a very. up next six boring illegal fishing off the coast of africa in stealing from the. world. science technology innovation all the latest developments from

around russia we've got the huge earth covered. if you leave the. economic up and downs in the find out all day long the deal sang i and the rest because i was going be a fool be if we can all be. when

it has to do with illegal immigration. mediately send frontex to us. today they control us in our waters as if a new colonization were taking place here and saying i'm military occupation of the oceans when they want to combat drugs in america or asia they find the means to do it and. if they really want to combat illegal fishing they have the means to do it they have the airplanes to photograph and they have the patrols to stop them from fishing in our seas. because they are shrinking our country and what is more serious. they are destroying our fishing resources and marine wealth.