relatives of russian families that left to join islamic state of contacted r.t. after they recognize some of the children killed by our crew in a baghdad orphanage. brutal government crackdown on a shia town in saudi arabia is turning more districts to rubble we hear from locals who arsonists to disguise their voices over their safety concerns. and. blow them to. do with. it thank you. for who. the syrian army steps up its efforts to break islamic states

seizure of the city and there is or will bring you exclusive video of. you getting me to you my name is neil harvey you're watching r.t. international. relatives of russian families left to join islamic state say that they recognize some of the children filmed by an r.t. crew in an orphanage in baghdad the russian speaking children were placed there after they were rescued during the battle to liberate the city of mosul from. says . that the. families. were moved one sigil a girl boy don't need mom opposable. holland that's one now knows

full well look i'll go and you'll slip through and list for a fraction of us just get caught what does are swept up which will. lead to. the list. she. wasn't of each. i need to show you still. get not on the not only time the only says. it only of being. only a bag of money shalt not god it was only. one that will. ease somewhat buckle sure but it gets good just to put someone usable. if close will money will leave the guy. it was believed that they were taken

to iraq by their parents who joined eisel and who are now presumed russia iraq and jordan are working to track down other family members r.t. join the search operation the video we just showed you was posted on a social media pages and was shared by the head of russia's chechen republic ramzan kadyrov it was after this that some of the relatives called time with this and my colleague emily says you. leap to trying to find out. it appears that it only took a couple of days for the first responses to come in and to be honest with you we were very glad and quite surprised about how quickly things were happening so let's take a look at some of the photos that we received now the boy that you can see on the right here is al he has sent us this photo now on the left is a screen shot from our video we cannot say for sure yet that this is the same

person but definitely the boys do look alike alleys and told us his father has definitely been killed his mother last contacted the family sometime between the end of last year and the first few months of this year and the family also received this photo from her the most horrendous thing about it is the islamic state flag that you can see in the top right corner now ever since that time there have been no contacts with the woman whatsoever nothing company in the end why do you envy people money. in the night. and that just need us but i'm going to and i'm not. i'm not talking to us because i'm still on the. most wanted something that was slipping down laughs yes. i did actually just because that he some on the left last. time. cheated. splash it on the national meeting with his name

if you'd done enough but i've yet to find out you still must take it out it's just another storm. on the list. when you. know what it is. that. you believe in the space you. are going to have. somebody who. will tell you if you have besides they want to tell other children well three more kids could now be very close to reuniting with their families if everything's well here's a picture of. rod on the right again just next to a boy from our video the story of. the story of all we they are strikingly

similar and horrendous their fathers are definitely dead and the last time soul tom rugs mother contacted his family was about ten months ago now also take a look at these two girls now they might well turn out to be sisters. and for the team we got this picture from one of their distant relatives and we were also told that their mother and father fled to turkey along with the girls about two years ago and ever since then they've heard nothing from them they disappeared and since they ended up in mosul it looks like the family joined islamic state well these are the obviously very horrendous situations and they've been subjected to i saw propaganda and also lived through the horrors of war how many such children could there still be out there and you mention the horrors of war of course here we can talk about the liberation. and of mosul and we remember

the drawing and the praise that we heard when the city was being liberated we saw the prime minister of iraq he was delighted it right when he arrived in mosul after declaring victory but what did he see there almost total destruction now when we say humanitarian catastrophe these words can mean many things but take a moment to think about the many very many children that were found amid this destruction some of these children that were treated at this iraqi shelter they were russian speaking and when our journalists talk to them the only things that they could remember is hunger war and death and some of them were even able to describe the experience of how their parents were killed so it turns out that luckily now four of them pending a d.n.a. test could be reuniting with their families very very soon but of course there are

more left a total of almost fifty children and we are of course waiting for more e-mails and photos and hopefully we'll be able to help them. more districts of a small town in saudi arabia have been reduced to rubble by government forces this is part of a crackdown that began to a half months ago with security forces saying that they're chasing gunmen responsible for attacks on police but now the town looks like a war zone very few journalists have been allowed inside the town most of the footage that we've received has been posted online by locals to show widespread destruction and nami vehicles patrolling streets residents told us exclusively what is going on in the town but they asked us to disguise the voices as they fear for their safety. only one here and there scion of the shooting incident over to the shilling but i think it's good to force under your sister to use tanks against

civilians who are operation has been going on for me not you days now but. watching the city has been completely empty no movement on the streets and nobody's out because sure george moore actually are on duty to shoot everybody who's in the streets free here to sound shooting range on charred i'm sure most more like a war sure are snarky for free. rockwall surely. i can see it by a show without the one below i can see trying to shoot. bush league on brickell schmoo good publicity in my house in which you have to induce now my going out going out one hundred i want to do is a go. i miss a month of violence the saudi crackdown has resulted in the death of

a child. not of my family. and i one me and i lost my students and friends. in the assault so if the city a child was shot by saudi special forces and he died after he was shot in his stand that. when asked about the situation in our me the region's mess said that the old districts are being cleared to make way for new infrastructure you also claimed that most locals actually wanted to see that neighborhoods redeveloped marti's mcgann's the ed looks deeper into the reasons behind the conflict in the region.

no that's not a war zone don't be daft that renovations a little do over neighborhood remodelling with guns that's seriously what the saudis a calling this the workers who are conducting renovation works to ensure the safety of the our missouri neighborhood have come into heavy terrorist find those pictures from our media a town of twenty five thousand people where they are foolish enough not to like the king or his family which is the government there are also shia as opposed to sunni and have resisted authorities our media was home to many executed malcontents such as cleric. who wanted democracy in saudi arabia bad behavior is punishable by so-called renovations soldiers plowing through your

home with bulldozers or the strong it with explosives and shells security is tight but for some reason the renovators keep on being targeted by terrorists to government. is just. one. trump. the renovations began back in april then the un condemned what it's called forced evictions and demolition people being thrown out of. their homes with little or no compensation those who resist being shot at by the way in no small

part the western partners canadian military vehicles are reportedly at the forefront of these saudi renovations. we are looking at these claims very seriously and have immediately launched a review remind me what did you expect would happen when you sold billions of dollars worth of vans to one of the most repressive regimes on earth profits of course dumb question saudi arabia is canada's second biggest arms buyer heck most western arms manufacturers sell all they can to riyadh weapons that eventually get turned on civilians both at home and abroad and then they feign outrage since two thousand and eleven o m e l was. one of the strongest towns in qatif calling for reforms calling for more rights

in saudi arabia not only for she even for certain is a will there the government to invite independent investigation of what's happening to interview these twenty thousand who have been displaced not to sell elect some who they know what would they say then they will told their government narrative. and artie's reached out to several cumin rights organizations over the situation in the town the red cross a misty international also the united nations have refused to comment citing a lack of information on the matter. the syrian army is stepping up its efforts to break islamic state siege of the city of dairies or arties ruptly video agency obtained exclusive video of the offensive. if. i. were.

one. of the b c's the city of dera zora is located in eastern syria as you can see from our map here is completely surrounded by terrorist forces the syrian army has been blockaded in a tiny portion of the city for almost three years while small the geologists are refusing to let civilians leave.

while a very late and even a bit as isis terrorists raided our house my thirteen year old cousin was staying with us i hid her in a water tank so that the terrorist didn't take her as a slave it was argued that it's not courtesy the situation in there is or is catastrophic terrorist from iraq execute civilians in the streets and leave bodies lying there for up to five days by secretly drove my sons out of the city otherwise isis militants would recruit them by force inject psychotropic substances and later use them a suicide bombers. middle east expert ahmad walker thinks that the attempt to break the siege is critical given the number of civilians trapped there. unlike previous operations where the syrian army liberated certain areas this time around we're talking about two hundred or so thousand civilians caught in traffic that have refused to submit to

the ice is or will. there be no sort of in unison syrian army. if they are liberated and they can you know suddenly have supplies and roads open to them to go for medical reasons for occasional reasons or whatever and to the rest of the country that this is a huge cycle and. that fan page two to the syrian government having given it is not only the syrian army unit over here stationed over there but also these this large chunk of civilians. a pentagon audits accusing a british contractor in afghanistan of wasting vast amounts of money on some questionable practices the review found billions of dollars in taxpayer money had been spent and see it should you know has more. this was revealed by a latest audit however somehow no no questions were asked on this case previously

and now of course this is going to be unraveling and more are going to be demanded now some of the questionable items or quit really quite fascinating they include seven luxury cars from up porsches to offer a mayo's to a bentley to an aston martin and a lender over new century consulting was unable to provide adequate documentation to neither justified a need for a luxury automobiles nor verified that the use was in accordance with contract regulations as an example and c.c. admitted to using the cars during non-working hours without keeping out of good records of didn't work use now also highlighted by this audit the approximately four hundred twenty thousand dollars each in salary was being described as significant others for working as executive assistants however not providing any kind of details in terms of what this work was exactly also the audit brings into the light about fifteen hundred dollars spent on alcohol forty two thousand dollars

spent on automatic weapons as well as personal travel expenses now the british contractor in question has said to media outlets that these assessments are unfair and inaccurate we've also reached out for more detail for commentary obviously we'll update if we hear back now we have to keep in mind that this particular audit focuses on the years of from two thousand and eight to twenty thirteen and all of this has come out into the spotlight but we do know that there is more auditing going on in terms of what in terms of the years that followed so certainly more is expected to be revealed then and we have to of course keep in mind that this is far from the first time when the issue of contractor spending as well as the efficiency of those training afghan forces on the ground comes into the spotlight to prove graham remain trouble just last month special inspector general for reconstruction who pretty because of a lack of performance metrics you. it's almost impossible to assess what they're

doing hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mentoring and training programs were effective while all of this is now being highlighted when of course the trump administration is considering its steps in afghanistan moving further so really it seems that there is quite a little bit to reconsider relations between china and the united states a becoming more tense with beijing angry over u.s. naval destroyer selling close to a chinese island in the disputed south china sea beijing alleges that the deployment violated international laws and sovereignty and security the u.s. navy destroyer was carrying out a so-called freedom of navigation operation the third one conducted during donald trump's presidency the u.s. says that there's nothing provoked even this. thirty percent of the world's trade goes through the south china sea and the rule such as been in place has been one that is orderly open architecture that's why you know freedom of navigation

operations or at least provocative things that you can conceive of. ok i can speak now sue tom brokaw he's professor of law and government over during the university could see itself given the tensions in the region right now just how dangerous or provocative do you consider this operation well i think it is provocative i'm not sure that it's illegal but i think it's definitely provocative clearly an area that china wants to exercise. control over to some degree or at least have. or at least keep other military powers out of the region but in light of other things going on the real pressure on china to act tougher on north korea by the trump administration i think this will be seen as as another. more aggressive stance of the trumpet ministration and it will heighten tensions it

further. so this was happening what close to chinese territory is in this disputed south china sea we'll examine exactly can china do in response to those drills. well i think the first thing that it will do is to simply call attention to this as a provocative act and try to get world opinion to be against the united states to really try to put some pressure on the trump administration to back down a little bit. and in the past it stung this this this is not the first time there's been exercises in that area is not the first time that there's been a dispute between china and the united states about territory in that area either so this is this isn't that part's not novel what is different is what everything else is and that is the growing tensions over north korea the close partner to china and what can be done about that i think china will want to make any moves side of its own free will of its own accord and not do so out of

being pressured or intimidated by vericut maybe and i think that. this is this is probably an unnecessary step by the trip administration to get china in line it's not one that i would have thought would be very wise to get the chinese to cooperate over what have been a lot of cooperation on north korea china has been moving on this in the americans favor so to speak and i'm in this is going to be something that is going to. cause unnecessary upset in beijing that could have been avoided what exactly can china do to influence the situation you were just talking about maybe to rein north korea in do they have much of a sway the. well i think they do have a lot of sway of course you know china has a lot of interest in not seeing regime collapse quite yet skitter that we've seen regime collapse in iraq and afghanistan and that is and the costs of long term

consequences of that that there will be surely a very large refugee group of refugees from north korea coming into china china is very concerned about if there was a collapse of the regime so they're very careful to have stability though of course you know not necessary no i don't think anyone is particularly pleased with the leadership in north korea at the moment so they're going to want to. make movements but they want to be be very precise in what they do very deliberate and also play it very cautiously they have been doing something so there's been some trade between the two countries that is come to a stop that there has been a decrease in some other areas of large trade north korea's trading less with china than it has done in some time this is going to hurt the north korean economy quite a lot and so i think i did something that china can do it is doing to draw to bring

some influence to that region there can be there is the new sanctions agreed at the u.n. the toughest on north korea that recently passed and that could only happen with china's assent china had vetoed it it would have stopped the dead in its tracks and china decided not to veto that there have been some things that china can do it is doing and just did and i think that you know one way of looking at this is a say well what effect will this have on the north koreans of course we should underestimate the resilience of the north korean leadership that where the economy is tanked in the past and its people have suffered terrible hardship that hasn't stopped the regime from following through on its weapons plans and continuing on with its militarization plans and so you know. this is difficult situation there is no easy fix i think that the shop of ministration seems to think if they talk very tough threaten fury and other types of things and and then have some big.

time and just listen about them on others because i just have to interject that i do apologize been interesting to your thoughts on this story they appreciate it tom brooks professor of law and government durham university well as we're just talking about the u.s. navy operation does come and as the ministration seeking chinese cooperation in dealing with north korea the president's already said he was disappointed by china's reluctance to be more active washington early already gave a strong warning to north korea. north korea. best not make it work threats to the united states. they will be met with fire fury. like the world has never seen is he exacerbating the president spoke to him to kim jong un in a language that secretary television has said and said this morning in the kind of language that kim jong un understand have the president of the united states keep

threatening to destroy north korea this is how shall i put it this is not the language of democracy is but by the way an act of war as well the north koreans either have a nuclear deterrent or they're pretending to but the only reason if they do have it the only reason they've got it is the keep themselves from being exterminated by the u.s. let's say the worst happens it could wipe out south korea it wipe out japan it could do just. to china the damage to russia i mean this is and then of course all the u.s. troops in south korea would all be killed too but this is this is not anything anybody should want why is this the u.s. is business why is the south korea own north korea they like it why is it owned by the us this would be such a horrific disaster it could be the worst military disaster in human history if the north koreans actually have these weapons which by the way i'm not convinced they

do have them but north korea slam terms comments is nonsense and said no serious dog was possible with the president quote the rest of reason but just how big a threat is north korea a lot more pain when gauging opinion in new york. with exchanges between washington d.c. n.p.r. and becoming even more menacing fear is growing across the united states according to a recent poll as many as two thirds of americans possibly believe that north korea is a serious threat we decided to talk to new yorkers and see if they could pinpoint exactly where this serious threat is coming from if you feeling north korea is a threat to the united states i don't think so my paranoid no but i definitely feel that north korea is a potential definite threat i think north korea is a serious threat to the region but not to the united states not scared of of north korea i'm not scared but i'm scared of who our leaders are in many countries and

how they're behaving they're not asleep behaving in the interest of of the people fully is becoming more of a birth votto and any time you're dealing with an a country that's led by your irrational dictator i think you know what you do appear for the worst yes pretty threatening and we responded in a threatening way that scary that you point to north korea on this map. there no that's that's siberia ok. there that's that's still siberia. that's that's southeast asia that's you know that's like vietnam. man mark there you go yeah that that's that's north i knew that she would get it and you find north korea on this map of the world her all that's australia actual oh well north korea. southeast asia that's cambodia that's. ok so it's here that's australia you're someone that's saudi arabia.