a crashes into muslim worshippers leaving finsbury park mosque in north london and reportedly injuring at least. headlines this hour the u.s. led coalition sheltered on a syrian fighter jet and. the coalition say it was in retaliation for the jet opposition. also in syria say it has launched missile strikes against what it describes as terrorist positions tree or the coming up later in the.

top stories from the past seven days right up to the moment developments as well this is the weekly on r.t. international my name to you know neal good to have your company we begin in the u.k. where a van has had a cried of pedestrians near finsbury park mosque in north london reportedly injuring at least ten people the metropolitan police some describe it as a major incident but has not specified whether this was a deliberate attack or an accident. as you can see there at the scene one suspect being a risk that the vehicle struck a group of muslim worshippers who just attended a late night ramadan prayer service according to eyewitnesses the. reiver was

wrestled to the grown by bystanders and held until police arrived at this scene now there are a number of other reports coming in that two men were also in the van along with the person who is believed to have fled the scene. ok well let's set cross live now to former pentagon official michael maloof to get his take on this michael good to have you back on the program and just reading into the reports here no confirmation that this was deliberate it needs to be stressed but earlier i did speak to the chairman of the mosque and we also heard from the muslim council of britain they have called it an intentional attack on muslims tensions are running high in the u.k. after what we've seen over the last few months is there a fear that conclusions are being jumped to here do you think well not necessarily everything is

a problem in the area with respect to this particular episode i've heard one report that the driver actually sped up before he plowed into the crowd of people that to me indicates deliberateness and and. it's a little strange that again we don't have any information on the perpetrator or perpetrators and consequently given that this is in a predominately muslim area outside of a mosque. again you cannot rule out certain possibilities so again i don't have the facts yet the police have not said so but. could this be a reprisal for what has occurred elsewhere. on london bridge and elsewhere i don't know but it's a little strange that this would occur in a predominantly muslim dominated area of town. but again we have no identification

we have. and but again use it using a van a car it's such a cheap way of conducting a. attack. whether it's a terrorist attack it's to me it's a terrorist attack because it's meant to present right into the population and the certainly would be a case of that but we don't know if it has political motivations or whether this was just a reprisal or whether the individuals who did it were drunk we have no information as yet on what happened and i think we need to really before we can come to any definitive conclusions we need to wait for police reports they are interrogating the one person they captured it's my understanding that one or two escaped so there may have been more than one perpetrator involved so again and we also understand

that might have been an episode and with someone was stabbed so we don't have all the facts yeah a lot of on verified reports of course the middle of the night there is well i much as a little bit more difficult to do an investigation i thought stage just looking at the broader context in the u.k. michel the country as you know has suffered this well wave of terrorism and we still don't have a government after an inconclusive election do you think that authorities are perhaps overwhelmed by everything that's that's going on and that's making situations like this a little bit more difficult to control whatever the motive. well you have the political level but the law enforcement will prevail it will still go on they have procedures on how to deal with terrorism there is a whoever is in government at the time particularly in britain you have you have a professional bureaucracy there that carries on their counterterrorism people are in place and they're working along with the metropolitan police in scotland yard so

i don't know that they are that the politics per se affects this. i think that what we have are up until now up until tonight's incident it has been predominantly. terrorist inspired from. people inspired by islamic state so it me in may mean that. given the fact that this was a vehicle using the cheap means in fact it's the identical method that isis called upon. terrorists in place to to use because it's cheap it doesn't you have no intelligence on any of this and this is been this is been the history of what we've been seeing recently particularly during ramadan factor this happened during ramadan is also curious but but. but isis did call for greater.

attacks but again the fact that it happened in a muslim predominantly muslim area throws a little curveball here and that's that's a little strange unless it was more radicalized individuals trying to go after more moderate. muslims again we don't know yet and i think we need the facts first yet we're just waiting to hear any kind of verified reports maybe even the marriott london i'd like what we know from authorities there michael maloof former pentagon official thank you very much for coming on the program sharing your thoughts on what happened and what you're london some hours ago. well cissy a church is the scene there in london joins us live now last time we spoke we believe that there may have been a number of casualties there any more word just bring us up to be able what we do know because there's been so many on verified reports coming in. that's true you

know this is definitely a situation that is currently under raveling it's ongoing if you can see behind me there are dozens of members of this community currently out on the streets it's four in the morning here yes literally people filling the streets all over here trying to find out what exactly happened in terms of what we do know so far is that a valiant had driven into a group of pedestrians on the streets near finsbury park mosque which is known to be a quiet large prayer center here in london now officials are saying that they were called to the scene shortly after midnight and that a number of casualties were reported we do know that several witnesses multiple witnesses at this point have been saying that over six people were seen laying on the ground we don't know any numbers as of yet in terms of how many people were injured however we have been hearing from multiple reports and witnesses here on the ground that allegedly more than one man was in this valley that we have heard

again this is yet to be confirmed that one man was arrested and two had fled the scene and we do know that over a dozen emergency services were dispatched to the sea to take care of casualties here on the ground but this is certainly very much an unraveling situation where we're going to be expecting more answers throughout this morning however we have also heard so far from both the reason may and the opposition leader leader germy corbin describing the situation as very shocking well we'll certainly be here throughout the morning to find out what happens and. our viewers up with the latest information on live from the scene in north in the nightside the finsbury mosque thank you very much and thank you very much. yeah as we mentioned they struck a group of worshippers leaving. so far the police have not specified whether this

was a deliberate attack or an accident that is what we are waiting to hear but the chairman of the mosque mohammad cause bar told me it was a deliberate attack muslims. of course during the last days of a muslim lot of muslims come to the mosque in their late night to pray and i think what's happened today is a serious attack it is a deliberate attack three people as as we heard from people on the scene that there were three people in the van and they came from the other side of the road to target the people gather to have a break from prayers and unfortunately there is casualties. at least ten people were lying on the floor and that one of the tankard been hardest hit by the people to hand him over to the police i think there is people that there is injured people as well i heard from the people on the scene that they've seen quite a few casualties on the floor. but just we have to wait maybe until morning

to clarify especially the motive of the tank why and why these people attacked her . indiscriminately and the people who gather because they are not just any muslims then they are you know it is very diverse community of all there there is many muslims and muslims alike and it is unfortunate. that this happened in this area where people get together and we have no problem whatsoever between communities it is open for everybody to the media to use this incident which we all have to condemn as we condemn other incidents like what's happened much sister or. masood or a london bridge we we have to condemn this this this incident got this who is behind it and called it as it is it is a terrorist attack on the most innocent people and many of them maybe lost their

lives and here we are another extremist from maybe different type of extremists they are they are using the thing in the same methods and their name both extremists aim to divide our community to this. red hatred division and. racism among our community we should let them do that we should stand all together as communities to condemn such or try to make sure that this never happen again. on the road bring major developments to you that story develops in london but moving on to other world news this hour a syrian fighter jet has been shot down by u.s. led forces the syrian government seized the plane was conducting a country or terrorist raid when it was brought down scythe of iraq damascus based journalist al ibrahim has more. so if one of the u.s. refers to the syrian democratic forces which is the militia group operating along with the u.s. led coalition trying to take the city off. from the control of isobel but we can

also confirm according to suffer through sources from the syrian military operating in that area that the popular jet was actually carrying airstrike against a convoy from ice and that the fighter jet in no way you posed any direct or in direct threat to any militia group from those militia groups operating alongside the u.s. led coalition trying to get control over gain control of the city or for the top planes of this so-called international coalition shut down one of our a fighter jets just south and suburb of baraka the fighter plane was on a mission to destroy islamic state terrorist the aircraft crashed in the pilot is missing but i think there is more to that story and lots more to that story is that is the u.s. is trying to true boundaries in the syrian conflict and red lines. for the syrian army not to cross the man trying to actually prevent the syrian army from achieving two goals the first goal is to limit the presence of the kurdish militias which is

the backbone of sirte of acrostic forces and the second purpose is to actually. operational the syrian military to arrive to the city of those or to break an arsehole siege on the city that has been ongoing for three years to put things in perspective if it is pushed out of iraq which seems to be the scenario it's very likely that this will be pushed out through an agreement between the s.d.f. and i saw that would allow isis fighters a safe way out and those fighters will then be will have only one choice to go to try to take the city from the house of the syrian government since they have been actually in circling that city for the past two years the syrian battlefield is a very complicated one right now where it has the presence of various international and regional powers not to stay. russia syria iran has been a lot of news has been law in addition to now you have the iraqi. army

and iraq in addition to turkey all these traditional powers they have they are directly involved in the syrian conflict right now it's very difficult to speculate what will happen in the coming days but what i can tell you for a fact is that it seems that the syrian army and the syrian government are adamant on actually moving on with their operation to break the arsenal so usually on the city of there is what i'm trying actually to limit the ability of the u.s. . led coalition troops who are now on the ground in syria limiting their ability to move on limiting their ability to create influence centers almost through battlefield and we have to almost that this is not just a syrian issue this is more of an international conflict and power play between the u.s. on service to. those pictures really are extraordinary and to the u.s. coalition they said the syrian fighter jet was shot down after opposition forces now the pentagon also accused the syrian jet of straying into a so-called conflict according to

a coalition statement syrian forces were forbidden from entering the area near the village of judging where the u.s. backed s.t.'s the syrian democratic forces are based however the russian foreign minister earlier rejected the use of the term the conflict zone saying the united states has drawn up its own without consulting other powers but i'm not aware of that to conflict zones the pentagon is referring to maybe there is owns that have been established unilaterally where the coalition thinks that he will do whatever it wants we don't recognize such loans as you know there are already discoloration zones that have been agreed on and established my syria iran turkey and russia and the steps by the coalition which don't receive consent from damascus are not legitimate. well the donning of the syrian jet is the latest in a series of u.s. strikes against forces fighting for the assad government over the past two months the u.s. coalition has conducted several bombing raids against pro-government fighters near

the border with jordan the same justification was used the pro assad forces have breached that the confliction zone doubly dean managing editor of veterans today told us the u.s. is unwilling to coordinate with other parties in the company i would tend to believe the syrians because of their sorties and their pilots are very valuable and they would be very careful the russians are on the lines all mapped out and they know that the u.s. would just love to have an incident like this but there are i've still forces in the area of the u.s. coalition is the one that is refused to coordinate these types of missions and campaigns to avoid this type of thing so they bear the responsibility of it. for a state with syria iran has fired several missiles into the country targeting terrorists

that allegedly responsible for two recent shootings in tehran and really suit discuss the story earlier here in the studio with former. the iranian revolutionary guard which is the elite defense force in the country they've released a statement confirming that they have launched several ground to ground missiles from western iran into the region of eastern syria they say they were targeting bases of terrorists that they claim are responsible for those twin terrorist attacks in tehran earlier last week in this statement the revolutionary guard also said that they managed to significantly destroy the terrorist bases infrastructure and also killed scores of them as well we can now show some unverified video of. purportedly showing the moment when this missile was launched and this development is rather significant because. this is the first time that iran has launched a missile strike into syria since they've been cooperating very closely with their start regime and joining their fight against extreme. sort of in retaliation to

what happened in the servant into iran just remind us just exactly what happened that militants have targeted two of the most important buildings in the capital city on june seventh that first gunman stormed the parliament building and opened fire when it was in session and then simultaneously separate militants have that's new to suicide bombs in the mausoleum of many who is the founder of this republic of iran so as you can imagine very significant buildings and those two attacks have led to the death of eighteen people and islamic state has since claimed responsibility following the attacks as you can imagine the government said that they were outraged and they have retaliation their revenge and the senior officials have also came out on cue saudi arabia of being involved they say that the fact that islamic state has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks proves a saudi arabia has been involved but bear in mind that saudi arabia and iran their regional rivals and the relationship between riyadh and tehran have really been increasingly tense and of course iran has long queues saudi arabia backing

terrorism which is something that flat out denies a number of different parties and states are all involved in this. syrian conflict fighters in the iran back to lebanese militant group hezbollah they were officially invited by the assad regime to join the fight and iran has been providing military support sending in trainers and advisers for the assad forces as well but as you can see this is quite a significant development as is the first time iran has launched missiles into syria since the syrian war started six years ago we had her in chief of iran's four is news agency told us what was behind me arabian missile strike in syria. in tonight's a statement that the i.r.g.c. public relations has given it is warn that this is the beginning if the terrorists embarked on conducting any second attack on iran iran would provide a much more vigorous response to them and not just it has also worn

backers and sponsors foreign sponsors of the terrorist groups including regional and trance regional and when i'm in the back years and when iran says trance regional backers terrorist groups specifically means the united states now it is believed by many in and outside the iran that the united states and many of its allies that are backing the terrorist groups in the region especially in syria they need to reassess. their estimates and assessments and the calculations with regard to syria. and afghan official has told r.t. that u.s. forces killed three civilians including two children last monday it would be u.s. troops opened fire as a result they killed and his two sons the shooting happened after a u.s.

military vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb pentagon officials have still not confirm the reports all of those have a. statement from the u.s. mission in afghanistan did say however that the troops opened fire in self-defense rotc as they have heard from witnesses and relatives of the victims. they're too young yet to fully understand what has happened or grasp the depth of their loss all they know is that their world has been shattered and wrenched upside down. this is my younger brother for a day he was killed by u.s. troops this is my brother surefire rules who killed. and this is my father zero good he was killed as well they haven't yet learned to read or write but life has taught them early to hate if you are one of them. i want the government to

avenge my father and kill his killers when my father and my brothers were killed everyone was sad at home my mother cries every day. it all began when a u.s. military patrol hit a roadside bomb by all appearances they panicked when the explosion happened i was near my uncle and cousins american soldiers opened fire and a bullet flew by my face i ran and hid and came out only a few hours later my uncle and cousins were dead so i went to the village to tell everyone. version is backed in the police report we were shown it says zero ghoul and his sons were at the shop two hundred meters from the scene they were taken for terrorists and torn apart by gunfire it was terrible what the americans did to them i couldn't even recognize their bodies zero ghoul left behind twelve children six boys and six girls from now on their lives

will be about survival clothing and feeding a dozen youngsters will be hard but for now it's anger that fuels them they killed them in a horrific way. we want to bring them to cause why should american troops be allowed to kill people in this cruel way the u.s. stresses it takes every civilian life seriously and promises to investigate every casualty of these investigations often end with only apologies and for this family that's not enough they want americans out i don't want them here because they kill civilians we're tired of american soldiers there are explosions and they're killing the americans not helping us they're killing us we don't need them in afghanistan that has a reputation the coalition has built over more than

a decade sixteen years of war and bloodshed atrocities and excuses and there's no end in sight it's no secret that life would have gotten he's harsh but zero goals surviving children the next few years ago and to be tough indeed that though isn't where the trouble ends ten years down the line when they've grown up you think they're going to support the afghan government and the people who murdered their father or the taliban and their promise of vengeance more i guess do you have. to europe where present a manual party has won a clear majority in the second round of the french parliamentary election with nearly all the votes counted now of the all marsh movement and its allies more than

three hundred sixty seats side of five hundred and seventy seven in the national assembly in paris for r.t. maria phenomena. the french president's party exceptionally on the high public on mox known as the republic on the move is expected to get the overwhelming majority in the powerful lawyer chamber off the column and that's means a big gigantic majority off the seats there and. is not surprising but the country is and terrain and he story a moment that would practically mean this outcome that anyone back home will have the green light for all the initiatives and all the changes that he has been promising welcome pay me for the post of the leader of this country we have been able to speak to different people here in france and it seems that the public opinion is divided about this some say that this is a very good sign this is why we value to hold based man but others are afraid that

. a country with very strong traditions is entering a new era when the authorization is going to be dramatically incapable of influencing the political landscape and that could theoretically lead to a situation when the ruling party would be spoiled somehow politically this is what some experts say about their theories will be a person but. the process of dissolution of the brutality. for as long as there isn't a strong opposition right now the opposition will be so weak as to the most basic system that he's that he's not a good situation. to be in parties which each individual will have. been subject to defeat. but they will probably collapse as a result these elites only want to see the socialist public. will some

degree of what. they will be. to solve the mapping the been the major rival all the men in michael in the presidential election the controversial leader of the national front party has been elected these time and she will all say be the member off palm and say the vote is now may be over but it is clear that france is at the beginning of something you good or bad it's too early to say. twenty eight minutes past six am this monday morning here in moscow you are watching your to thank you for doing so crosstalk debates they suddenly lead blockade of qatar next on the program.

what hope to change to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want to. have to go to the press this is what before three of the people. interested in the waters of. such an environment you're right. chemical discoveries over the last century made every day life easier but at what cost this is syria was exceptionally sick. one.