washington assassinates a top iranian revolutionary guard commander. in a drone strike in iraq. for keys of parliament approves of bill to deploy troops to libya in order to back the embattled u.n. recognized government in tripoli we looked into the ramifications. and the top u.n. rights expert says that the united states jailing of whistleblower chelsea manning for refusing to testify against wiki leaks founder julian assange is tantamount to torture.

or broadcasting live to recommend studios in moscow this is an international i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us we have major breaking news out of the middle east in this hour a high profile iranian general soleimani is among several assassinated in a u.s. drone strike in iraq's capital for more on this we're going to turn to our senior correspondent. live in the studio you are our man on the ground or you have been our man on the ground there in iraq you know the region you know the area you know the politics there. big news what do we know so far well it's all developing we're right on the nights edge the situation is tremendously tense it is incredibly dangerous and the 2 sides the united states and iran and now on the verge of literally war reigning in national security council is convening right now to discuss how to retaliate and a presidential aide to the president said that the united states must now be ready

fool retaliation just just to recap this will happening in the off the mouth of the assassination of can see him soon imani he has sometimes called the. 2nd most powerful man man in iran who was cool he commanded that could force the quds force is an elite regiment in the reagan military that carries out operations abroad to preserve deployed in syria was deployed in iraq to fight isis and seem. money he himself he was an incredibly influential person in the region he organized helped organize the popular resistance to isis without him the you know isis may well have overrun much more of a rock than it did he did similar things in syria marshalling the anti isis effort that back in the early 2000 he even helped the united states fight the taliban and

al qaeda in afghanistan but do you know it's ancient history for the assassination happened in the national and the national targeting a number of vehicles at the baghdad airport to round that along with him there was several popular move forces commanders deputy chief killed. in that airstrike as well the p m f p m f what stops you could say isis in its tracks the this these were the 1st responders when the situation seemed hopeless shia muslims in iraq move allies for these p.m.s. units and resisted for back against isis they were critical enjoy a huge amount of support in iraq they these individuals the deputy chief the. public relations chief. sort of money would killed in this strike they identified him apparently by a by a ring that he used to wear. the ring was still on his hand is.

very powerful and there was a lot left nevertheless iran has now confirmed his death the united states has confirmed his death. and the united states is blaming all of this on iran saying what it did it did in a preemptive defensive manner. interesting so right now like a lot of people have actually said that this is like getting osama bin laden but other people are saying that's actually not an accurate assumption because it's more like targeting the vice president of a different country while the united states says that as i said what it did is was a defensive action because apparently he was behind the organization of a spate of attacks on u.s. bases and u.s. partner bases in iraq in recent weeks. that eventually ended up killing united states contractor allegedly the united states struck back it.

carried out the ass strikes against several iraqi units p.f. units as well as syrian units military forces and they they carried out these airstrikes apparently as revenge for this attack that was old and huge protests in iraq outside the u.s. embassy was almost see the united states and ended up sending helicopters show force $750.00 troops additional troops to guard the embassy you know this is an embassy in the green zone these protests were president that the how or the how you know angry and how close they got to the u.s. base nevertheless the pentagon in its statement was adamant that iran is responsible for both those attacks and for what the trump had to do now which is kill the money. at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s.

personnel abroad by killing qassam so in money this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the united states will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world. as i said the rain ians are now discussing how to retaliate and they have promised retaliation raney and presidential aides in the united states should expect consequences should should expect retaliation for this. what that allegation will be is anyone's guess but just just just. just for you to put things into perspective here iran could very well shut down the gulf of oman the whole moves the whole move straight and that is where a 5th day we will move through we're getting some information right now just started out that the iranian foreign minister describes the killing of general

solar money as. u.s. act of international terrorism and it is an extremely dangerous and foolish escalation so there we have some official information from iran coming and this kind of confirms what you're saying that this is a big deal continue you know this is this is it is huge it is the 2 sides are literally now on the brink of war all out war obviously nobody wants this war but you know tensions have come to a head and iran could retaliate if it is the chief military power in the region has a vast arsenal of weapons both on land in the air and on the seas they could shut down the strait of hormuz they could shut down the supply of a 5th of the of the world's rule 21 percent daily travels through the strait of hormuz obviously they could strike a plethora of u.s. bases in the region. the one thing that we can be sure of is that they will react

how they'll react is anyone's guess. because some saline money has joined his mouth or brothers but we will take vigorous revenge in america. now this of course on the back of previous u.s. accuses accusations that same silly money had been responsible for attacks on u.s. troops in fact that they claimed that he had been responsible over the years that the 517 american soldiers in iraq obviously knew new way to verify this number but the state department is saying so and they had warned that they would carry out unilateral action preemptive defensive action whatever that is you know this is your guess my guess but they they they did warn that this could potentially come on or

a. draw some indications that they may be planning additional attacks if that happens then we act and by the way if we get word of attacks or some type of indication we will take preemptive action as well to protect american forces to protect american lives again this is all happening minute by minute donald trump characteristic manas tweeted response to all of this giant american flag. the interesting thing is right on the right the 1st response is a retreat of his dating back to 2012 where he claimed that accused barack obama trying to start a war with iran in order to boost his ratings is his poll numbers and people have people have you know pointed out the irony now with his own poll numbers impeachment in the air now he kills the you know what people are calling the 2nd

most powerful man in iran and what this this will do to his presidency is this is again in the air and there is a tweet for everything that seems to be the case you are the man who knows the region thank you for coming in early it's bound to be a very busy day for you ahead as we are as you mentioned on the razor's edge escalating very quickly on the brink of war so i don't envy your position to stay on top of this but thanks for coming and being on top of it with us here on our international. or i for more on this we can cross live to alessandro bruno from the gulf state analytics thank you for being with us on our to international as always so the pentagon has confirmed it did carry out the strike that killed all the money in your estimation how big is this. thank you sean well it's very big but exactly what will happen and how is. anyone's guess right now because.

so many was not only a very successful soldier he was slated in my view to become a potential presidential candidate in iran and he's certainly more popular than rouhani and he's very close to grand ayatollah khamenei the supreme leader. so i think in iran any reforms that will credit reform social lugard it will be will will take a backseat for the next little while as the more conservative forces are the ones that come in he controls will be strengthened by. the killing of the murder of sort of money who has been described as a martyr of course whenever you have someone described as a martyr in iran it's an important. development. the 2nd thing is what iran will do with the now the ball is in its court right now and you can

certainly make life very difficult for the united states in iraq and i see parallels here with the 179 and the u.s. embassy attack by students who could have thought in 1990 an embassy another fortress in tehran could be taken over by students and its members kidnapped well i think although the compound in baghdad is bigger and inside a military zone. of this area already so it's possible. the. shiite militias can be mobilized. this point under the banner of solar money so that's one possibility. i'm interested in your reaction about nato so the united states obviously a member of nato. should expect the backing but this is not an action that that i

can imagine other allies would like so how do you think that the nato allies are going to react and other u.s. regional allies about this action. well nato in particular the european members of nato are not going to appreciate this action at all after all they've been trying to secure a deal a backdoor deal with iran under the nuclear deal. all this time since trying to cancel it and i don't think the european union has any intention backing down on at least trying to. to maintain the j.c. pioli nuclear deal alive so certainly they're not going to back. the united states in this venture perhaps great britain with boris johnson and specially now as great britain has to by the 29th of january i believe this is boris johnson's deadline. that me. that maybe some support of course

but i don't i don't think turkey will appreciate this action as it prepares to deal with its own adventure in libya so to trump's action comes at a very delicate time in global international relations and oh and i forgot about china. and china and transfer suppose and the united states were supposed to secure the 1st phase of a trade deal you know a few weeks the price of oil if everything goes according to the most pessimistic expectations in retaliation for some murder. the price of oil can spike and china is not going to appreciate that it needs a cheap oil and it needs to keep importing oil from iraq so the implications. go well beyond nato and i think the u.s.

is alone here with very few exceptions within nato england and then of course israel in the middle east what about. like if you if you break down the region it is a hodgepodge of weird allies and weird connections one thing that we're forgetting here is iraq you were also reportedly part of the casualties in this strike how is that going to impact u.s. relations with iraq. well u.s. relations with iraq have already deteriorated considerably especially in the last couple of months but they've never really been all that good and new iraqi government has done exactly what united states wants when the united states has taken over a country which was divided. already and continued to divide it perhaps in order to conquer it but the result was isis and saw him and he was one of the greatest fighters. against isis in fact he secured some of the biggest

success so we could see. an internal that the rise of an internal civil war again with sunni forces like isis but also with shiite militias themselves because not all shiite militias are. there were some. clashes just a few weeks before christmas between. fellow shiites in southern iraq. so certainly there is more divisions and more conquering to be done but life is going to be more difficult for the americans because now iran has lost all hope of reaching some kind of cooperation with trump who is bent on perhaps protecting his image after the impeachment in the congress ironically it's very interesting

just days before clinton was impeached in 1980 he launched a strike against iraq a 100 people were killed at least missed on strike so it's very whatever there is impeachment in the air in washington iraq somehow gets hit and it's. just a side note but you just. seems to be the case actually. so. we hope as this plays out we can come back to you and get more analysis it's always interesting to hear a thought from state analytics. all right let's stick with of the broader region but switch gears a little bit president trump thinks that foreign interference could complicate the situation in libya and he raised those concerns during a call with president of turkey both leaders agreed to maintain diplomatic cooperation in the conflict this comes after the turkish parliament voted on thursday to back the un recognized government in libya giving a green light to

a troop deployment there now libya has been in a state of war since protests in 2011 and the ousting of the country's leader moammar gadhafi in recent months the un backed government of national accord has been losing ground to the rival administration of general. who leads the libyan national army general hostile forces currently control most of libya's territory including crucial oil and gas resources and the u.n. back to government meanwhile formally requested military aid from ankara last month now the arab league believes that the deployment of turkish troops will further escalate the conflict in libya neighboring egypt has also strongly condemned the decision saying it would hold turkey fully responsible for any negative repercussions archies policy or as more. he knows that this emergency session took place this afternoon in ankara we did see opposition from the main opposition party and then major concern is really that it will tensions in libya and that is

a concern that's been expressed here across the region that number one we could see the libyan situation becoming more and more inflated and at the same time tensions trickling over elsewhere into the region now the initial mandate we understand is that troops will be sent for a period of one year of course and course saying that this deployment is vital for turkey for her interests in libya and also her interests in the eastern mediterranean last month an agreement was signed between and libya and according to the turkish president in that agreement he was requested by the tripoli prime minister fires to send such troops the government has been embroiled in both her fighting with the military command of tar and his libya national army now they've been unable to reach the city center of tripoli but there has been particularly in recent weeks a lot of fighting around the capital or a turkish political analyst use of air i'm told us archerfield it has exhausted

military options. turkey doesn't want defeat or at least turkey's not going there to combat at least not initially i expect a very immediate deployment of $200.00 marines there to serve as a stopgap at least raise the cost of hop stars of pensive on tripoli knowing that there is a turkish presence knowing that if any of them are harmed there would be a much greater retaliation from making the pop star and his felony think twice before bombing bombing tripoli president add one has tried to reach out to his nato allies especially his e.u. allies multiple times this is basically a last resort right now when diplomacy doesn't work unfortunately there comes a time where you have to flex your hard power and there is an important saying what happens on the military field the diplomatic table we're seeing turkey become more and more now the major player in not only libya in the north africa and the east

and the middle east turkey is showing that it's not going to shy away and president add one is willing to use his military muscle to get the results he wants at the diplomatic table as well. a senior u.n. official has launched a scathing attack on the united states over its ongoing detention of whistleblower chelsea manning saying her treatment amounts to torture special report nils meltzer made the claim in a letter to the u.s. government which was written in november but has only now just come to light. the practice of coercive diprivan of liberty for civil contempt involves the intentional infliction of progressively severe mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation at the order of judicial authorities such deprivation of liberty does not constitute a circumscribed sanction for a specific offense but an open ended progressively severe measure of coercion for

filling all the constitutive elements of torture or other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment chelsea manning was a u.s. military intelligence analyst but was arrested in 2010 for supplying classified information to wiki leaks she was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison president obama community her sentence just before he left office but she was then arrested again last year for declining to testify against wiki leaks publisher julian assange lawyer and activist kevin zeese explained to us how the law is being used to coerce manning. in a grand jury which is a secret process before someone is indicted or you before a prosecutions occurring to determine whether someone should be prosecuted this is a power of the court to coerce someone into testifying now this law can allow a person in the united states to be held for the length of the grand jury in order

to coerce them to testify before the grand jury and no longer serves the purpose it was intended to serve it's now become a weapon of prosecutors it was initially designed to protect people who are being investigated the reason they're kept secret because it trying to protect people being investigated before they're indicted so you don't know that they're being investigated but no motor serves our purpose and now serves the purpose of being a tool for prosecutors that's abused and i think chelsea manning is a victim of that abuse the report by niels meltzer does give an additional air of legitimacy to the case of manning to really back up all of the things that manning's supporters that its own supporters have been saying now for over 6 months this is unjust that this is unfair they're trying to create something new this is the whole point of coerced trying to coerce manning to come up with something that the o.j. can use to make

a real case against the sunday shows you how flimsy this is this is the degree degradation of the justice system in the united states and also in the u.k. as well in the case of the songes more like more resembles a banana republic style facade of a state judicial apparatus this is all part of a campaign to reframe and to reframe julian songe and wiki leaks as it is from a journalist and a publication to being a cyber criminal and a hostile foreign intelligence agency the entire case all the indictments against dishonor are based on that we frame in principle and they are trying to get chelsea manning to give them something a key to actually make that narrative work and she's not she's not volunteering anything and this is frustrating the u.s. system tremendously. chilling message is not flying much better he has also behind bars and a british prison after being dragged out of the ecuadorian embassy in london where he had spent the previous 7 years. on it. few buildings in the walls have ever come

under as much scrutiny as this one here at the door and. in those 4 walls for 7 long years possibly the most famous was a pro who time to get a sandwich would hold off until 8 court 2019 to 48 rolls was sensationally dropped out which should start to ease. the work for the wiki leaks founder this was a huge betrayal by the latin american country that had sheltered him since 2012 aquittal said the relations had soured with the sand and his bad behavior triggered them opening the door to the police and revoking his asylum but it's worth noting that just a bit acquittals bank account got an almighty boost with a $4200000000.00 loan from the i.m.f. where the u.s.

has huge voting rights a staunch is currently sitting in belmarsh prison in the country's capital sucking up to meet sentence but jumping bail in 2012 but many are saying that what he's actually been handed is a death sentence because over 60 doctors wrote an open letter to the u.k. government saying that he might die in prison britain for its part denies any wrongdoing the allegations mr son she was subjected to torture and founded and hold false the u.k. is committed to upholding the rule of law and ensuring that no one is ever barbet but london's defense rings hollow in light of the reports by many organizations including the new web which claims that as a scientist health continues to deteriorate authorities are simply standing idly by the blatant and sustained arbitrariness shown by both the judiciary and the government in this case suggest an alarming departure from the u.k.'s commitment to

human. rights and the rule of law unless the u.k. urgently changes course i believe yes the inhuman situation mr songes continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing him his life but his songes battle for his well being is not only fight on his hands ever since wiki leaks exposed gross misconduct by the us government washington has been pushing for his extradition on espionage charges giving him a helping hand the british government despite international outcry the u.k. home secretary signed a us extradition request putting us on one step closer towards being charged for publishing classified information and conspiring to hack a top from a computer the 18 charges that washington has put forward could carry a maximum sentence of 175 years behind bars the reaction

all over the wild people are crying foul they say that this is not a case about punishing a crime but of silencing avoids julian or singled out for special treatment for one reason only here's the truth he's such an innocent important man is because he is a freedom fighter however much you dislike. his case is the most important for me give you freedom this is just. miss rule of law and operation. washington's bid to get asylum stateside was also helped by not the european country sweden the scandinavian nation was investigating a rape allegation against the whistleblower and would have been within its rights to request his extradition to face trial since that case predated the u.s. request london would have been obliged to send a songe to stockholm fast but sweden has now closed that investigation conveniently

removing the. final obstacle for the americans funny how it all wiped out a song just extradition hearing is set for factory 2020 but in light of these recent talents of the band's peers are rubbing the does little charts of play this close to sure i mean what and so of course what news most of the united nations special opportunity tortures. corrupts and stress that the entire system in the u.k. including the judiciary and the media has because when it comes to julian. before you call course earlier this year this sort of was a confirmation that what neil smelters said seems to be true that julian. just lots of what journalists fear trial into while one always hopes that lead to justice it will prevail us authorities have rather spared a client what for

a start so it might well turn out that when a country is to secrets are at risk of being exposed justice is what that's up for interpretation so as to tailor our to. our in every camp of our breaking news story this hour out of iraq where the u.s. has assassinated one of iran's top generals. and a drone strike reaction has just come in from iran's foreign minister zarif he is vowing the u.s. will bear responsibility for solo moneys killing and has condemned the strike as an act of international terrorism we will bring you all of the latest on this huge story at the top of the hour my colleague nic aaron will be here following the story it is a big one you're watching our 2 international stay with us.