twin terror attacks in spain fourteen people were killed in school. and the result. was next to one it's. good to see behind me there were people people. terrorism is the latest in a series of attacks in which have been used to strike terror in europe echoing incidents in france germany and the u.k.

since last summer. our daughter was. she still destroys. the attacks in spain are being linked to an explosion earlier in the week in a suspected bomb making facility leading to questions over whether more could have been done to prevent last night's killings. but i welcome you watching at international start with that news from spain because the country is in mourning after suffering its deadliest attacks in over a decade in which fourteen people were killed in barcelona a van was driven into crowds in the popular tourist area on thursday night then hours later a car crashed into a group of people in the resort town of islamic state claimed responsibility a word of warning though the video we are about to show you is highly disturbing. i

come down here. the van was coming down the rambler and i was completely unaware. until it was pretty much alongside me and at this point i saw everyone from the as . i ever want just panicked like everyone everyone ran you know no one and i was just when it stopped and i didn't. get fifty feet behind me there were people people lying face down on the floor i. i you just don't expect it to happen. like to you in a way you know you see on the t.v. like i saw them when it happened in london and i saw what happened in france and t.v. but when it's right next to this is a different. city from a different feeling. well here's how events unfolded then in barcelona

early on thursday evening at around five pm local time a white van was driven into people on the popular pradesh my street of the rambler it was filled with tourists at the time in fact it's the people from more than thirty different countries who were injured or killed the van went home for around five hundred eighty four eventually stopping at another main square from there the driver then fled on foot and he's still at large. i police have already detained four people in connection with the ban attacks though the suspected driver of the vanished said is still at large is believed to be a seventeen year old a beer the brother of police compare one of the three men arrested earlier to respond it himself into police after being named on t.v. he claims he wasn't part of the attack but that is documents were stolen and then used to rent the vehicle partridge now reports from bosler. but behind me is when.

they have right in the heart of the around they started to lay a makeshift memorial that's been candles that had been messages one was really really savvy written which was we remember the innocence and that summed up the mood of somber it was the people laying there tributes that teddy bears believes flowers and candles. and i guess nothing like that ever happened to me i hope they'll find the perpetrators and everything will be all right unbelievable if you go back to the rubble and so many people are here and it's like normal life but some put. some candles on this on this play is. everywhere but i feel incredibly lucky and we do consider that luck just continues shopping it's just so nice to be yeah but we just i don't know we'll go back and catch up with a lot of the friends in that decision was just for show and just copley that we did

that and we would be sisters since but now that i'm there are starting to go back to how exactly it was before there is a normality is there was before police have taken away the tapes that was along the size that we first saw over first came here and the businesses particularly all the cabin sort of always being here and now starting to open up people are coming in all tourists there i think weeding their suitcases almost in an act of defiance in many ways you can believe that this actually was a crime scene and it was a scene of a terrible tragedy but there are barcelona is now trying to get back to some semblance of normality but with a slightly somber feeling out of respect for the day and a memory for what happened here only a day ago. partridge there in barcelona well as i mentioned earlier just a few hours before that attack in barcelona there was another incident one hundred twenty kilometers to the south in the resort of congress which is now known to have claimed its first fatality police opened fire on a car after it failed to stop at

a secure. checkpoint several people were injured before five terrorists inside the vehicle was shot dead residents of terror in europe is even seen one family caught up in two separate attacks with more he's daniel hoare it's. a tragic reality of the situation is that this is now such a cross border threat that even families who were vacationing on the consulate find themselves victims of terror attacks multiple times whichever country they travel to on the continent one such example scott atran his daughter was in the theater during the attack in paris in the twenty fifteen eighteen months on he finds himself in the middle of yet another terrorist atrocity bringing about some very painful memories take a listen to what he had to say because i was just bringing my. and didn't know what was going to happen my daughter was in the but. she still she still is very.

very broken server so i was staying in her room and we actually spoke to mr atran last year interviewing him his daughter was involved in the attacks and thoughts of how optimistic he was on this threat being tackled effectively the threat of terror being utilized in the european very much was not optimistic saying that there was very little chance things could ever be the same again big problem is that isis has a unitary message and a unitary and universal appeal and the forces opposing them do not and we don't know really how to handle such a movement now another example of people being caught up in a double jeopardy if you like my interest the resident chris paul he narrowly escaped being caught up in the magistrate arena bombings just a few months ago he actually left the area just seconds before the bomb was detonated he was nearby mowed down dozens of people on the boulevard these

attacks are something that we've stepped. together and covered sadly many times over the last year to eighteen months or so they've become a pattern across the continent they all bear strikingly deadly similarities minimal planning preparation training equipment is required to carry out these attacks.

now a lot of people have drawn a clear foreign policy link between these attacks. and foreign policy spain who is very interesting because of course spain last fall victim back in two thousand and four two is the most terror of the two thousand and four madrid train bombings that the big impact on the election at the time the prime minister the ingoing prime minister withdrew spanish troops from iraq as a direct result since then they have been no attacks but this really goes to show why so fulfilled their pledge of targeting westerners in every major european city if you remember after the nice attacks of twenty sixteen the prime minister at the time and all viles he stated that terror is a new reality in france something people have to learn to live with his comments at the time very much provoked controller see and criticism but what we've seen today really proves that this is not only a new reality in france alone but on the whole of the continent just how safe do people feel now i think many in barcelona in spain indeed in europe will be

questioning that. in the aftermath of this latest attack. ok let's talk about this further with peter kirk and he's a former u.k. police officer and he joins us now from london good afternoon to you peter let's just first see starts specifically with what happened in spain last night some people are criticizing spanish authorities for letting these attackers slip through the net given that they discovered this bomb making facility in the middle of last week do you think that criticisms fair. impossible to say without knowing the exact details of what they knew and what they didn't know what they did and what they didn't do we regularly hear this sort of criticism when something does happen. your forty's could have done more with hindsight you can usually find things but knowing what's going to happen you close the door but without knowing what's going to happen you couldn't close that door because that door is very very similar to tens

of thousands hundreds of thousands of other doors and so you need to know the exact details of what they knew and didn't know. i could include draw a conclusion on that also reports peter at the moment that the one of the chief suspects the driver who's still at large it's appeared that he did post radicalized messages on facebook not so long ago again people might suggest well surely police should have picked up on this but it's a very difficult thing to put together is it. the police pick up on lots of there are think the numbers were twenty two or twenty three thousand people on the radar in the u.k. who have done similar things like that that have come to notice people that have been involved with groups where there is radical preaching going on or whatever it might be people associate him with groups or websites on the internet and so the pros know about lots of people doing that sort of thing but the police then cannot

just put them in jail there is no legal basis for that and secondly they can't watch them all. to watch somebody twenty four seven takes thirty plus people usually more and that simply cannot be done and so the police have got this situation where they know lots of people on the edges of radicalized thoughts and extremism and even on the edges of terrorism and yet they cannot they have not got the resources to watch them all and there is not the basis for putting them in prison peter just talk us through now what's going through the minds of police given that this man is at large and they have to catch him. presumably the night get the net gets tighter and tighter as it is times go time goes by and they get more information from different sources about where this man could be what i mean what are your thoughts. yeah absolutely the longer the inquiry goes on the more and more information they'll pick up they'll be using all sorts of techniques to try

and identify where he is. i think they'll get him probably fairly soon it may be a matter of days possibly even weeks but unless somebody really disappears with a lot of thought and probably with a pre-planned why of doing so usual for people that the police are actively looking for to disappear for a long time. but they'll be piecing things together and will be looking everywhere they can for him at the moment sure and the word about the nature of this attack today is a pattern isn't it that we're seeing the vehicles they used to run over pedestrians in killed people but nothing much can be done a back to it. unfortunately not there is very low barriers to entry for this form of terrorism it's not difficult to get hold of a vehicle lots of people have got vehicles themselves or they're relatively easy to steal or as a story in a lot of cases you simply go down the road and hire one. and then unfortunately

people have realized just how much carnage you can cause just with the vehicle we're actually starting to see in the u.k. around other sorts of disorder not around terrorism where there is some sort of squabble between groups outside a nightclub or took an outside or whatever where it might have been fisticuffs where now from time to time see in vehicles being driven into crowds and so unfortunately once these things start to be publicized people see just how easy it is and that is definitely the case with terrorism it seems at the moment to be the method of choice and as you say it's really difficult to defend again she can defend a particular place but then they just go somewhere else it is extremely difficult ok peter look thanks for your time and thoughts this afternoon as peter kirk and a former u.k. police officer thank you you thank. four places we mention there also linking the attacks to a blast on wednesday night in a house in a small town not far from barcelona it was initially thought to have been

a gas leak but police now say it was a homemade explosive device that destroyed the building former british intelligence officer and he says the authorities had all the necessary information according to but the attackers have again slipped through the net. and how it's the capability and the will to do for all intelligence information of the patient if they take all the information and we see time time again pretty much every lone wolf it's in north america across europe and in australia it is what these people always already in one commiserating but you know what happens is there's so much information on a strict rules and say i'm taking. actually they cannot without the people who they're not doing to prevent intelligence. operations to stop that's what they have that's just the big database stuff where an attack happens it's calling almost

campbell. but then they can find out because it's six that is this is not intelligent for people who want to be safe on the streets even these french people don't want to give them safe space. ok we have just seen a statement from spanish police they say that the suspects involved in last night's attacks were preparing actually a bigger attack four people are currently in police detention three of them are of moroccan origin and one is a spaniard however the perpetrator the police say they haven't named him yet we'll keep you updated on these latest developments. first.

just. to shape our. worlds apart. to look for common ground.

forces supported by russian fighter jets have surrounded islamic state terrorists need the strategic bath in hama province russia has been conducting air strikes in the area to destroy vehicles and heavy weapons the terrorists were trying to escape to their stronghold of the city of daraa saw near the iraqi border. but he has the details from syria. well that is a first it's a good it's part of an ongoing course of events where the syrian army is advancing using a new tactic where instead of trying to take large areas of the desert they actually try to encircle large areas of the desert and cut off supply lines going into these areas which will effectively cause the fighters of the radical group to either with the throw or actually put down the rope and surrender themselves allowing the army to move at a quicker pace and this means now the tsunami is much closer than ever to the

breaking. of the city of the sort of the city of the resort is the provincial capital of eastern syria because of a number of full siege by arson for over three years now most of the city is under the control of the syrian army and in these parts thousands of people live who are suffering from extremely difficult circumstances and there has been hundreds of cases. and people dying because they can't get absolute to basic medical care because of the ongoing so huge they are going to get out or have a job out there but i was proud. that i. should support having you know like. for the journey the journey of any other syrian army moves closer to breaking the siege a force on the city of theirs or now civilians inside the city having a new form of hope as they feel that the situation could change and if the army

manages to break arsenal's usual the city could once again go back to their everyday lives through their normal lives. but meanwhile r.t. is campaigning to help orphans stranded in war torn iraq to find their relatives and returned home they were taken there by radicalized parents who joined islamic states we are appealing to a family for family members who might recognize the youngsters to get in touch with us and the pains to say that some relatives may have been found although many. i still like to. change clothes to kill mom a little while all of that old. age a big. step to just mom dad he couldn't. do it but there were no me to go to. come. get. me if you.

take them back can you. tell us a good. time to. bring it here. use of clothes by the throat wound a blow up of glass not growing your nose going on you no more soon you know. and i am so she's desperate to prove the girl we filmed in baghdad is indeed her granddaughter having lost her once and being in the dark about merriam's whereabouts for over three years. she didn't stand up going down is this is still true. says that kara was still try and ensure that i get most of us have a connection with mariam and her parents was completely lost for

a while until the family got a phone call from an unknown number looked after me or she. chairs five of the people that had no supper i'm trying to watch an eternity touchable together to get off the stairs of since then only mysterious calls a few times a year at one point even a bit of video. for you to listen here. to show they got a bright future ahead in the land of jihad. yeah but now that put the mobs a grise just a step away from bringing her granddaughter back home after all the horrors we let her record a message to. come out here i said here i say i was i have a message regular step he was married here was mary pat. but we've also been contacted by a couple from to take

a stand today and i believe they've recognised their granddaughter is also cold maddy and. when the girl says she saw both her parents die and that she is originally from tajikistan we continue to look for the relatives of these children if you do have any information that could help to you please contact us e-mail address at the bottom of your screen now. and other events in iraq the country's prime minister has acknowledged that security forces abuse prisoners during the operation to oust eisen insurgents from mosul many were suspected extremist militants who hasn't faced trial please be aware that some graphic images are backed to be.

an investigation was launched after a photographer released pictures of the torture suspects were beaten raped and tortured to death we talked to the photographer. earlier when the images first came to light and he described what he'd witnessed. i thought they were heroes yes they were so brave fighting on the frontlines every day but then i saw the other side the torture the raping the killing first they didn't want me to film the torture

and other bad stuff it affected me my psychology i kept thinking about the torture all those people and their suffering it got worse and worse and after five weeks it became so horrible they decided to publish everything. i know it was unbearable but i made myself continue to film because they knew it was important he tortured people and killed them over and over when we heard this morning that the foreign secretary the foreign minister jaffrey has requested. assistance of the u.n. to look into the crimes committed and more so and that is good another positive steps because iraq do need to assistance from the un and we can feel that maybe some of the pressure has been put on the on the government to take any take further and fist a geisha internet or which is we find it very positively that's what we're looking for from the government of iraq to look into this kind of incident to to to to seize and also to take people into people accountable about this incidence with our

say so that brings you up to date so far today i'll be back with the latest on the spain terror attacks in just over half an. isis militants are just chilling patrols under the turn and ready ministers coming . enemy troop movements have been spotted on the river.

here in the early to troops of militants have joined. those groups to subdue the determinations of independent states in the philippines. even after two months of fun to keep finding should weapons and explosives. civilians are used to live. noise. is a. walking dead. and it will make. the fishers though says he doesn't.

implicate. a police a key to keep. propping . up so. if there were. such. i should think.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle it's probably fair to say no other american president is more controversial than donald trump was so many powerful forces arrayed against him can he succeed even stay in office we will see however legitimizing the destructive means employed against him may be the lasting damage. across talking the state of trump world i'm joined by my guest some euro con in washington she's a columnist and political scientist in new york we have rob he is a political pundit and journalist contributing to the huffington post and in seattle we have sound callers he has a raw.