says it happened last week in the oil town of bentu. some of them back the former vice president riek machar. the pictures you may find disturbing. the first pictures from the scene to be broadcast show dozens of dead bodies and we aren't even airing all of the pictures simply because they're too graphic. after capturing bentu from government control. 200 were killed and more deaths in a church in a hospital. al jazeera's anni anna, the sces were major the most shocking that he had ever encountered. tell us what you saw. >> yeah, that's right, it has been an unfortunately motif of this conflict that the dead bodies have been seen in every town that has been captured and recaptured from government forces. but what was really shocking about bentu was the scale of it. there were so many bodies we could see them coming to the land from the air. we really found most shocking scenes. outside that mosque where people had gone to take sanctuary was a pile of dead bodies. whether they were executed on the spot or they were dragged there we don't

empty of civilians so to say people are dealing with this are not doing it in bentu and most went toeighboring the town. but what we did see while we were there is the aftermath of the massacre that took place in a mosque and many people were killed and the town exchanged hands and a battle between government and rebel forces but 800 people sheltering inside a mosque and 200 people were slaughtered. >> reporter: no preparations of what was to come and so many dead bodies and the construction equipment was used to move them. outside the gates of the mosque there was another pile of bodies either dragged there or killed together. the stench of death was overwhelming even for the rebel soldiers standing guardian people were butchered in the mosque where muslims and peer from dofor and sudan sought sanctuary and 120 people were killed in a massacre in the mosque and shortly after filming the pictures we were told by the u.n. the real number of people killed in the mosque is over 200 out of 800 trying to hide there and like other towns it has changed hands several times since fighting bet

. >> targeted because of they're ethnicity targeted attacks in the city of bentu. targeting people hiding in hospitals churches and modifications. monica lavel, has the story, we want to warn you some of these images are disturbing. >> as we were coming into land we could see the dead bodies on the road from the air and streams of people making their way from the town of bentu to the u.n. base in the small sister town of racona. they were carrying building materials on their heads, apparently determined to set up new places for he themselves, just outside those gates there was a pile of dead, difficult to count but in the tens, and it's certainly been there for a long time. they were bloated, decomposing just left out in the sun. when we went into the mosque we found just eight corpses inside but according to the human rights investigators, many, many more were massacred inside there last week, they believe 200 of the 800 sheltering there for protection. by the time we arrived, most of them had been removed. >> allison mcgiffen, good to talk to you. now we were awa

people from bentu have been taking shelter at an u.n. base. here is a sudanese spokesperson saying that government forces are working to regain control of the city. >> yes, forces in the town and protect the public from the town. this was committed atrocities killing innocent civilians in the market, however, they are moving and it's a matter of time that bentiu will be in the government of south sudan. >> pakistan's taliban movement has called off a 45-day cease-fire with the government. several taliban members have been killed in what appears to be in-fighting within the group. >> reporter: the spokesman for the taliban say that they have decided unanimously that it will no longer continue to hold the cease-fire with the security forces. they accused the pakistani security forces of killing over 50 of their personnel in the last 40 days of the cease-fire, saying that the government was not serious, not sincere, and there was an unanimous agreement that they would commit to the cease-fire no longer. meanwhile they will try to convince that th

mission in south sudan say the attack happened last week in the northern city of bentu. the area is rich in oil reserves. officials say anti-government forces captured the city then stormed a hospital, a mosque and a church. they say troops singled out people by nationality and ethnic group then killed them. the officials also criticized members of the opposition for using radio broadcasts to spread hate speech. government troops have been battling forces loyal to former vice president riek machar. the violence began in december. president salva kiir and machar belong to different ethnic groups. the two sides agreed to a truce in january. but sporadic fighting has continued. >>> syrian leaders have called a presidential election in the middle of a civil war. voters will go to the polls in june. president bashar al assad is expected to run for a third term. parliamentary speaker mohammed jihad al aham announced that candidacies will be able to register starting later on tuesday. syria law states that anyone running for president must have lived in the country for the ten

anna bentu al jazeera south sudan. institute for policy studies.rald, welcome. >> good to be with you. >> those pictures we just saw are devastating. can you tell us why this ethnic issue exists? >> to go to the lens of ethnicity is disturbing. what is happening now is really struggle for political power and also economic power. let's remember that you know you had a -- basically a war that has broken out, a cease fire signed just a few months ago in january but really continued fighting. because this -- which is really africa's newest country, you know south sudan became independent just back in twefn 1 and since then there has been a real struggle. >> i want you to talk about the starvation and how serious it is to south sudan. >> even though this is an oil producing state and big oil companies are continuing to take the oil out of the country. you know it's said oil revenues have gone down for a minimum of 20% in the past year of the fighting in spite of the incredible richness people are left with nothing without access to food or health care o

one base in bentu has 22,000 civilians inside it. the u.n. says they are trigling to cope with the in flux. >> these camps were not designed to house thousands of people, of families. we're not designed to be set up as feeding centers in an area where it's prone to flooding and rainy seasons. all these are very, very difficult and challenging times. there's a lot of tensions in these camps. >> the deterioration of the situation in recent days led to ambassadors being called to an emergency session of the u.n. security council. behind closed doors, they were shown pictures of the recent massacre. the u.n.'s head of peacekeeping described the atmosphere in the room. >> it is one of deep shock, deep shock first in the human sense by seeing hundreds of bodies. can you imagine 200 bodies left to rot in a mosque? people killed in hospitals. >> do you have a partner still in the government of south sudan? >> we have expressions of partnership. we have what we call a status of force agreement and yet that agreement despite all the verbal assurances w

on tuesday, in unity state, the opportunity of bentu was retaken by rebel forces. the state is rich in oil and, therefore, strategically important to both sides. the rebels an the government are supposed to be observing a cease fire that was brokered in late january. just this week, the rebel leader told reporters he was targeting south sudan's capitol and its oil fields. anna kabel, juba, south sudan. >>> 9 suspected fighters have been killed in an airstrike. the drone fired a missile and hit a car thought to be carrying members of al-qaeda. three civilians passing by were also killed. >>> the kidnappers of indonesian xloment are releademanding the release of laruci cantosi working in the capitol. he disappeared on thursday. and one of his colleagues was abducted last month. the ton easeian government says two men are being held byunisiao men are being held by. now the amaset people are one of the oldest. since the fall from power, they have been undergoing a cultural renaissance of sorts. inch kabul in ernestoern libya >> reporter: untlittle eval the hope of a gr

in tuesday, in unity state, the town of bentu was retaken by rebel fors. is rich this oil and, therefore, strategically important to both sides. >> the rebels and the government are supposed to be observing a cease fire that was brokered in late january. but just this week, the rebel leader told reporters he was targeting south sudan's capitol and its oil fields. anna kavel, al jazeera, juba, south sudan. >> south sudan is the world's youngest country having gained independence from sudan in 2011. >>> french journalists taste freedom after almost a year of captivity in syria. the four men seen here were found by turkish soldiers on the syria/turkey border. their hands were bound and blindfolded. a boosted from the united states, cog tots "wall street journal" for the very first time, u.s. and saudi arabia are sending missiles in to help arm the opposition. white house officials are neither confirming or denying those reports but they did say that they are working to help bolster the rebels' ability to fight the syrian government the. the three-year civil w