scenes like this are par for the course at this refugee shelter in dusseldorf.ut the true capital of thieves and pickpockets is berlin. there were 40,000 such crimes here last year. it's a booming business, and federal police units are trying to stem the tide. we speak with two plainclothed -- plane-clothes officers on patrol, sven lichtenberg and nadine n, who doesn't want us to show her face. >> the nationality fits. >> they're switching platforms, looking for luggage and victims. all three are wearing backpacks, walking slowly, practically creeping along the platform. >> i'm observing the two standing in front of us, and nadine is watching the 3 standing behind me. >> it's rush hour at alexanderplatz in berlin. a young man on the stairs catches their eye. he's walking behind a young woman, and his hands are covered by a jacket. carefully, and almost unnoticeably, he opens the tourist's backpack. then he strikes. >> federal police. hold on. if look at your backpack. it's open. >> a skilled pickpocket can earn up to 30,000 euros a month. most of the pickpockets

this man arrested in dÜsseldorf may have known ibrahim el bakraoui.olice do not know how well or to what extent. this is what they are currently investigating. anchor: meanwhile, the u.s. defense secretary ashton carter says the u.s. has killed several senior leaders of the islamic state group following a series of air raids in syria. amongst those believed to have describedd, the man as the jihadist group's second in command. he is reported to have been killed last night when his car was struck. here is what ashton carter said about him. secretary carter: we are systematically eliminated isil's cabinet. the u.s. military killed several key isil terrorists this week, including, we believe the isil leader, senior leader serving as a finance minister, and who also is responsible for some external affairs and plots. leaderoval of this isil will hamper the organization's ability to conduct operations inside and outside of iraq and syria. anchor: the u.s. defense secretary speaking. philip brings us the latest from washington. reporter: there is little giv

the airbus a320 was flying from barcelona to duffel dover when it crash -- dusseldorf when it crashedall 150 on board. the flight data recorder revealed the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane after locking the pilot out of the cockpit. >>> a damning report from the ujs is painting a -- the united nations is painting a horrific picture in south sudan. it says troops have raped and killed girls and beat men and boys. it says it's trying to protect the country's people. we have the story. >> reporter: it's an all-too-common scene in south sudan. villagers destroyed here, bodies littering the streets. thousands have been left homeless trying to flee the violence. now the united nations accuses south sudan's government of operating what it calls a scorched earth policy against its own people. >> which is killing of civilians, displacement, pillaging, abductions, rape, and general -- generally terrorizing the civilian population. >> reporter: among the more horrendous abuses detailed in the new report, the u.n. says south sudan lets fighters rape women as payment. in another case, amne

the copilot crashed the plane which was travelling from barcelona to dusseldorf. he had been suffering depression. under german law, his employers couldn't be alerted to his state of mind. i wonder what you hear about the press conference, the findings, the more findings into what happened. >> they are yet to get into the substantive recommendations of the report. if you can see the news conference under way, that man you are seeing on the podium, he's the chief investigator that led a team of 10 investigators, looking at not just the mechanics of the crash, but the wider issues raised by the deliberate crash of a passenger jet into the french alps a year ago. >> the main issues that we know of from the preliminary report, issued a month ago is that the co-pilot was able to lock the cockpit door while the captain had taken a toilet break and set the autopilot for a low altitude dooming everyone on it to death. investigators are looking at whether wider issues could be addressed and prevent a repeat of that. it's unusual that a pilot should deliberately crash his p

also looking at another man in duff dusseldorf who they established traveled on the same plane to try the other brother ibrahim bakraoui had actually been deported at the same time as the other brother so they're looking for possible links with all of this. >> as i'm trying to keep track, mike, i want you to weigh in, we're talking arests in germany. the safe houses, the raids there, what happened in france tell you? >> part of it is we have to be careful that we're talking about bits of information that are leaking out. some of which may not turn out to be true at all or not related. it's going by associations rather than actual involvement in a particular conspiracy. i think it's particularly important to be cautious, the different elements going on. often what you see, there's this phase of connecting dots. it becomes much easier once you know which dots were important. you know which dots were important so it's easy to move backwards and that's the bread and butter of law enforcement and part of how we solved these crimes for decades. >> abdeslam, we now have learned, they interro

one in geason, one in dusseldorf.e a key arrest, a very significant development in germany. we'll have more very soon for you. >> okay. clarissa, i want to bring you in. very important stuff. for as ill-prepared as the belgium authorities may have been befored attacks, seems they're connecting the dots now, between paris, germany, the spiderweb where they're now arresting people all connected to these brussels attacks, seems like they have sped that up. >> and it seems like the one overarching theme here is that so many of these young men spent time in syria. and this is crucial, because this is the moment where these guys go from being petty thugs to hardened terrorists. this is where they are learning to operate heavy machine guns. it's where they're learning to build bombs, and what's been alarming watching this is we hear over and over again the families have gone to the police. they've said that their sons or their brothers have gone to syria. that they've become radicalized but authorities not just in belgium bu