headline stories this. hour rested on a u.s. base in korea where they were demonstrating against the deployment of an american missile defense system these are pictures of. police presence on the right of your screen you can see now live pictures from cyprus. also ahead this hour the united states largest military base in afghanistan is hit. taliban claims responsibility saying it was in retaliation for an offensive leaflet distributed by the. syrian government forces with russian

support retake a fortified area held by islamic state in the city of. paving the way for its liberation that follows the lifting group's three year long siege there earlier this week. the world is r t international my names you know me welcome to the program our top story this hour hundreds of protesters have gathered in an eastern province of site korea where u.s. missile defense system being deployed let's take a look at live pictures now from there police clashed with the demonstrators a little bit earlier injuries being reported but a tense standoff there at the moment this is what earlier these pictures right. you

know if this standoff occurred a u.s. base some three hundred kilometers southeast of the capital the protesters reportedly tried to break into the administration building we will be keeping a very close eye on this story and bring you more later in the. ok old too off where a suicide bomber blowing himself up in front of. america's main military site in the country reportedly comes after a leaflet thought to be offensive to muslims was distributed in the area where for more on this i'm joined by our to use. so we are what do we know so far about this . well a suicide bomber detonated explosives at baghran air base in afghanistan u.s. military forces have confirmed a small number of casualties but the exact number remains unknown at the moment the

attack is believed to be a response to a highly offensive leaflet distributed by u.s. forces in province on tuesday that depicted part of the taliban flag along with a passage from the koran on a dog this is an animal that's considered unclean in islam the bombing occurred only hours after a senior u.s. commander in afghanistan apologized for the leaflets the taliban responded saying it showed america's hatred for islam and that it proves the war in the country is a war between islam and unbelief according to news reports but this isn't the first time controversy struct struck the area in february two thousand and twelve u.s. soldiers mistakenly burned korans at the same background base alongside damaged books and texts from the airfields library well the incident prompted widespread protests and resulted in several deaths but it's but we have to think that. while

fire fundamentalism is mostly to blame for this incident it seems like the us imperialism plays a strong role in providing these terrorists with a motive to purge perpetrate these attacks one can only wonder if trump's new policy on afghanistan will further exacerbate the situation a lot as one of the things we're going to be going in to talk about with our guests next america come thank you very much indeed journalist and author david swanson i believe is on the line we can speak to about some of the topics there some here are brought up hello to you does the incident with the leaflets actually indicate how out of touch the u.s. actually is with the afghan people i think it begins to scratch the surface yes and it's one incident among a great many and the burning of korans for example has not always been accidental i was in afghanistan some years back when a preacher in florida made the news by burning korans intentionally and people were

outraged but all of these things you know urinating on corpses and all of the scandals are you know not just incompetence but our you know part and parcel of. an even more offensive even more incompetent occupation and what's even more counterproductive then on corpses is producing those corpses in the first place what's even worse than you know dropping leaflets is burning people's houses rather than korans and you know this is a time when the united states has made clear the occupation is permanent they're never going to leave this has to be part of what has people outraged can actually push that argument abide incompetency even further and put to do u.s. forces actually care about how off guns feel about their presence in the country. i doubt very much that most members of the occupation from the united states

and its allies really care that's not what they've been trained to do not what they've been educated to do they've been put into a situation where they see afghan people as threatening their lives and they don't want to they haven't been educated to think there's anything to learn from afghan culture so they are there to you know do their job stay alive and get the heck out and let somebody else come in and continue it for generations but you know clearly they they have no comprehension and no interest in getting any comprehension out of the way they're occupying this comes of course against the background a few weeks ago of president trump saying that he more troops are going to be sent to afghanistan we don't know the number we don't know the time except for when people are going to be coming and leaving but we know there will be reinforcements are they going to help the situation there. there's absolutely no reason to think

so the united states has had well over one hundred thousand strong plus contractors and allies and mercenaries and it has simply made matters worse everything that this occupation does makes matters worse if you think about people who you know would make a flyer that tries to demonize an enemy and manages to demonize the entire population and those people are trying to figure out who to vom and who to kill to make things better you can imagine the results and that's what we've been seeing for years and there's no reason to think that you know tweaking the number of occupiers slightly or dramatically is going to change things for the better david if you could just briefly put it into context how much sway the taliban actually hound's in afghanistan at this point how to do less and has it grown in the past sixteen years since the us has been there. i think it certainly grown since

the initial attacks and there was every opportunity to negotiate. a reduction in power for the taliban without any war whatsoever as there was to negotiate a trial for osama bin laden in a third country but once you've once you've gone in and. this sort of destruction and created this culture of of intense violence and a trid opportunism you know you're going to have. the taliban and all of the. violent groups claiming power it's going to continue getting worse and it's not going to get better immediately when the us gets out but it's going to be harder and take longer the longer it spread out to start we appreciate your time and thoughts on the issue of you author journalist david swanson thank you ok let's

return to our breaking news this hour hundreds of protesters have clashed with police in an eastern province of side to korea where a u.s. missile defense system has been deployed you're looking at the live pictures from the scene you can see there on the right of your screen a sizable a large police presence holding back the crowds who do seem to be there in a peaceful guys for the most part then again as the camera you saw even more police we do know that earlier the where clashes demonstrators. there were injuries reported as well now the backdrop to all this the standoff occurred at a u.s. base some three hundred kilometers so i think of the couple so all the protesters reportedly tried to break into the administration building so the situation we have now we've got the police standing between

a number of crew. that does seem to be. a moment of protesters we can only see one time wrangle there for a little while you can see there are perhaps thousands of people there this comes of course we've got the situation in north korea where the president of the leader of north korea is threatening with nuclear arms korea of course is not going to. people you've got citizens of here coming out and saying we do not want. u.s. missile system in our area because this is only going to infuriate inflame the situation . north korea into a corner this is what a lot of analysts have been saying as well this is the situation we're going to see more and more. more weapons are brought into side korea locals are going to come out and saying not in our name this is not what should be happening but this is in

response to the. terminal high altitude defense known as rocket launchers basically on the border with north korea very very near to north korea about three hundred kilometers away from so of course in the north korea area close to the border so these are live pictures now from south korea of demonstrators against the u.s. missile system being put in the country. so we will keep a close eye on that situation if it develops we will come back to it now it all comes really as washington say's it's going to continue deploying troops weapons to the korean peninsula in fact one top u.s. army official to address pyongyang says. of destructive actions america is the ploy

ments of hardware includes a craft carrier strike group sa anti missile ships as well as fighter jets and helicopters washington and seoul are also reportedly preparing to hold more military drills not is why as well you're going to have a lot of protesters out against that so i create may also the u.s. to redeploy its nuclear weapons to the peninsula as jacqueline reports south korea is currently eyeing a possible redeployment of u.s. nuclear weapons on its territory which if approved would bring the military buildup around north korea to the highest level. we would need to find realistic countermeasures by reviewing all the political military options in a serious security situation with north korea's nuclear and missile threats but the question is will this drastic move have the desired effect of making north korea back down well if the past few months have taught us anything now but can yang and

washington are nowhere near to dialing their saber rattling back only raising the stakes higher and higher kim jong un shows no such understanding his abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war any threat to the united states george territories including. or our allies will be met with a massive military response. president reaffirmed the commitment of the united states to defending our homeland territories and allies using the full range of diplomatic conventional and you can you capabilities so disposal so as a nuclear option the next step would trump make that call looking back trump has always had a rather shall we say unconventional approach to nuclear weapons during his iconic one thousand nine hundred interview with playboy he confessed nuclear war was on his mind and it seems the idea hasn't exactly gone away for so you don't want to say take everything off the table just you know better go shoot or if you do this

nuclear look nuclear should be off the table but with be a time when it could be used possibly the trouble is when you said earlier even america's oldest allies can't count themselves one hundred percent safe can you tell the middle east or not use the nuclear weapon and never say that i would never take any of my cards off the table but europe we won't use and you're not going to take it off the day you might use it in europe. and surprisingly trump wants the u.s. to expand its nuclear arsenal because apparently if you're going to have nukes you better have more than everybody else it would be wonderful the green would be that no country would have no. but if countries are going to have nukes we're going to be. at the top of the pack yes for every major world leader at the option is always on the table and to be fair trump has said that it's highly highly highly highly unlikely he would resort to nuclear action and prefers a world without nukes but even if it's just about scaring the enemy when nukes are dominating the thought processes of kim and trump the rest of the world would appreciate more predictability and transparency in the thought process. r.t.

washington d.c. . i'm happy to say we can cross live now to jim just tristrem is a former u.s. diplomat and always good to have you on the program jim why do you think we're seeing the box lost from people inside korea their government for instance say that the missile systems are there to protect them. well it's remember as soon after he was inaugurated as the current president in was very skeptical about the deployment of the fad his dodge was to order an environmental review of supposedly that review has tentatively been completed it at a minimal level of risk but i think he's put under a lot of pressure from washington and i think these demonstrations are largely directed against him moon ran on a more moderate platform these are his constituents so to speak who are looking for some way to jump off of this this treadmill heading toward a very bad end it seems because there's simply no military scenario that anybody

has come up with that doesn't result in an awful lot of south koreans dying and i think it's quite understandable some of these people are saying we've got to do something else now i'm not privy to the state department's thinking but what it looks like jim from a distance is that the more the north korean leader perhaps and make statements that the u.s. seeing as worrying are derogatory washington continues to beef up its military presence in the region it hasn't worked before do you think they're going to keep this kind of thinking going. i hope not but at the moment that's the see that seems to be the direction it's going i mean look there's there's a real chicken and egg issue here yes kim test more missiles a test of what he claims is a hydrogen bomb at the same time we have not only the thad deployment we have x. changing the payload restrictions on korean missiles possibly to accommodate nuclear weapons talk open talk about americans putting nuclear weapons into korea

we've been practicing with a south korea what are openly described as decapitation drills against the north korean leadership but of course kim jong un would have to understand that means himself personally and then we wonder why gee why are those guys so paranoid it seems that you know it's interesting president trump scolded the south koreans in a tweet last week saying that that their approach isn't working that the only thing the north koreans understand is force i sometimes feel that force is the only thing that some people in washington understand the only thing in their toolkit is more threats more weapons even if it shows that things are only going to become more dangerous just the president from what is believed to be ready to sell more weapons to the south and japan is not enough specht of what's happening here weapons. i think it's part of it and let's remember one of the big items on his maiden voyage

as president to riyadh was we're going to sell one hundred billion some billion something dollars and weapons to the saudis so why should they can continue their horrific campaign in yemen i guess yes i think part of it is that we these are good customers let's go and sell these weapons but i think the the militarization of the policy of using military threats and military force is the only item in our tool kit is is his son how become so ingrained in their mentality they really don't consider other alternatives like for example the chinese proposal on a double freeze which has been rejected out of hand by washington just on the scenes we're seeing in this area throughout the kilometers north of so will the demonstrations jim that we're just seeing right now happening we know that before this back in may i think a petition was submitted basically saying we do not want the missile system in

their area so a peaceful process has been put forward it was obviously rejected do you think we're going to see more and more side coming out and saying well hold on america's skin is not really in the game it's us who will be affected if north korea really ramps up the escalation here it's also it's going to be affected so more protests will have to be seen. i would expect so remember that the south korean south korean people elected president moon with the expectation of a more moderate policy and instead we see him being pulled i think reluctantly to this more militant game plan coming out of washington but it's the south korean people and we're talking about millions of people whose lives are at risk and the paradox here is i understand from the american point of view our number one priority should make sure that nothing that kim does can threaten americans with some kind of weapon system he might develop that has that capability so why do we do not step out of the loop why are we insisting on making ourselves the driver in

this process so that we're right on his radar screen as well and it doesn't make any sense to me if president trump were really putting america first and certainly i would if i were a south korean i would be very concerned about the direction this is going what do you think washington thinks is the best possible outcome of having drills with troops on the border of north korea why do you think they're doing that. i think the thinking of it is essentially along the lines that china holds the key to north korea that they can turn north korea on and off like a spigot which they cannot do or if the all the chips are down they could stage some kind of a coup or occupation and remove the north korean regime and that will solve our problem and that if we press them hard out if we keep the warlike rhetoric and the threats of force high enough the chinese in desperation will act and i think the chinese made a very clear in the statement it was really in the global times but understood to

reflect the thinking of the chinese government when they said look if kim attacks the united states he's on his own if we attack kim we're at war with china the idea that we're going to get the chinese to do something like this simply by threatening people or applying more sanctions and pressures i don't think is realistic nonetheless that seems to be the game plan here in washington jim there's so many players in this isn't there washington north korea the psyche of japan you've china way it's very hard to have a crystal ball to see how this is going to turn night but how do you think it's going to turn out what do you think it is is the situation going to be like next year for instance. you did i would not hazard a guess i mean the trouble with something like this is that once you reach a certain level of tension once things are in a certain fever pitch and as threats and how interest threats are flying and both sides are that somebody does something stupid something accidental something

neither side intended happens and then things take on a course of their own that nobody really wanted. ok jim john trysts former u.s. diplomat jim always good to get your take on the on the big issues of the day think you're it. ok just to remind you let's take a look live pictures this hour what you're seeing now is a protest inside korea where people are decrying the deployment of the us. system violence scuffles have been going on between the. protesters for some time and we've seen even since we've been in there for the past twenty minutes or so even more police being deployed you're looking on the right of your screen some armored cars some normal cars as well in fact there are vehicles of the public coming out to protest these scenes are really taking place after months of locals in this area petitioning peacefully to the government to say we do not want those

american weapons in our area we we believe it's going to escalate the situation against north korea because we're so close to the border it's a worrying area of this that we do not want the u.s. in this area it's come to the point that they're not listening to the court they're not listening to the petition the government so the public have taken to the streets more and more people as the night goes on into quite late there into the into the early hours there are people are still coming to the streets that does seem to be a sizable amount of people ranging groups into certain areas and of course the police are making sure don't start marching in various streets there are keeping them in a very particular area there so these are the live pictures now from the.

song jews some three hundred kilometers away from so. i. will keep a close eye on the other news stories this hour syrian government forces backed by russia have recaptured a large fortified area held by islamic state in the city of daraa sore. well after retaking the position syrian troops find a network of tunnels containing weapons medical supplies and it's also emerged that

the area was mainly defended by terrorists from central asian nations russia on choose their russian warship targeted the militants there helping the syrian army stormed the fortress. the latest operation is part of a larger campaign to totally for size the fighters out of terrorist or which has largely been occupied by the terror group for the past three years during that period it's become one of the largest pockets of extremist forces in syria. you're the. guy you are. you know what you're seeing here actually pictures of two government army brigades reuniting after the siege on the city was finally lifted one of those two gates had been trapped inside for all of the time thirty six months munching on. more now on the liberation from. the people of doors or

won't have to pray for these to appear in the skies anymore for three years air drops with their only lifeline and they prayed for what was really just a handful of syrian soldiers to never let the city fall completely to islamic state while i salute used any means absolutely anything to take their resort it's all over now but nearly nine months ago a sea of eisel all around the city and beyond how the country and black as you can see on this map since that point it's only been shrinking two thousand and seventeen so far a nightmare for islamic state and syria i'll break down the milestones for you number one palmira. the city with more than three thousand years of history had really been caught in

a tug of war before march when the syrian army with washington air support took full control number two the city of rock the one known as the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate. no more capital in iraq looks like the terrorist commanders ran from there and thanks to the efforts of the kurdish units and other u.s. led coalition fighters the hottest in the city are fully surrounded number three breaking the siege of errors or. you know if. this was one last chance all the remaining war might be had to offer off it went to deir ez-zor according to russian army intelligence crossing islamic state in this

area is the next step time to check up on the map now that's progress three black traces left the rooms of the self-proclaimed caliphate. it's been a long day in the castle and parliament members have been debating since wednesday morning whether to hold a referendum on independence from spain not yet arrived at this edition we believe all talk of independence has been met with fierce resistance from madrid spain has now ordered the former leader of the region as well as other officials to pay a five million euro fine for holding a consultative ballot in twenty fourteen the money it say's must be paid by the twenty fifth of september just a week before the new vote being discussed at the moment would be held the council on president has lashed out his country's government over that amount. people the government have made a jump in their desperate strategy to cause fear they decided to increase the

threats and the attacks on all citizens who want to vote to decide their future and they've done it and it's not an x. tonight it was at the beginning of this week which is going to be decisive because we're approving the referendum law. ok to discuss the issue further now joined by an advocate for scottish independence from the u.k. jonathan shafi jonathan welcome what do you expect the outcome of today's parliamentary session to be and catalonia. well i think the faina lies in the detail of the referendum that were to place in the first of october but i think as you can of story just pointed out there what we're looking at is a kind of ratcheting up of fear of there's been eighteen occasions in which the spanish intervened in some way or another to prevent your being arrested in the and that goes along say the whole cd's of our place of measures which have been deployed smeaton politicians this for.