imran khan reports. >> reporter: as a standingoff between the group islamic state of iraq and the levantand progo groups, tins, the humanitarian situation gets worse. >> translator: government services aren't provides. there's no oil, gas, or petrol. >> reporter: progovernment groups have called on the tribes to force the al-qaeda groups to lead. >> translator: i call on them to take action and we are with them, we stand beside them constantly and support them. the army is ready, but we want them to take the initiative in order to pull the rug out from under the feet of those evil people. i call on them to unite and to take a stance to prevent a deterioration in fallujah. >> reporter: an interim deal has been struck. and isil fighters not wanting to surrender, a ground assault may be the only option level. imran khan, al jazeera. >>> it is day 11, al jazeera, still awaiting the release of our three colleagues who have been detained inside a cairo prison since december 29th. nicole johnston has more. >> reporter: the network is demanding the release of their colleagues. they are accused o

imran khan. al jazeera. >>> the woman known as jihad jane will be spending many years behind bars.the 50-year-old had agreed to kill a swedish artist who had offended muslims. gave col eenl rose a reduced term because she cooperated with investigators. >>> next. being used on the black market. radioactive water, leaking into the pacific eververyday? >> join america tonight's michael okwu for an exclusive four part series, as we return to fukushima only on al jazeera america >> a jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour >> here are the headlines at this hour breaking news... sports... business... weather... live news...every hour, on the hour only on al jazeera america >> take a look at business news, wall street starting off mainly flat. dow down eight points. a spoig report on the private sector putting a drag on the market. senate expected to vote to confirm janet yellen as the first woman to head the federal reserve. she's got a lot on her plate as the end of the central bank bond buying stimulus program. >> janet yellen has to

imran khan, al jazeera. >> at least 16 people have died in election related violence in bangladesh. despite pretty tight security heading into those polls. 300 parliamentary seats are up for grabs but the main opposition party is boycotting the vote leaving more than half of those seats now uncontested. more than 50,000 troops are deployed all around the country and the u.s. and eu refuse to send monitors, because the conditions are not set for full and fair elections. >>> all calm in the capital dhaka. >> to rm the constitution of bangladesh. >> the opposition once held an election like this themselves. this time they should have taken part for the sake of the country. >> reporter: outside the capital a quite different picture of polling stations looted and burning. and victims of political violence, hundreds of dead and thousands injured in the past yearful of them innocent bystanders, violence that has been the, prime minister under virtual house arrest and sheik hasina who didn't need to vote her own seat was uncontested. >>> streets were quiet, eerily so. this was no ordinary e

imran khan's focused on taking self are pti made it impossible for them will communities. and they wished us and visited the border you people just keep it to strike the city the job of sitcom on the academy on the money due to the moon that this week they call it a good and sunny be a tool that when they left though you keep up to the heartbeat. it will come across. i didn't order any kind to the exit of hunting double d didn't smile of us life and a condom onto its top twenty in two thousand said and many screws and focused on how wonderful seeing the canteen and keep up the sun and anti islamic banking. in a two week imran khan said he spotted the teams in the pmo fixation and he did not know why it's the pti common goal of going to the need to let out a shocking scene but standing up looking so focused on kind of on the tenth and birds education. she was shocked on the head by the time to bond funded killing comes with two moments back nine in october two thousand fans the lesbian gay bisexual and constant delight in cbt community in antioch on stealing their protest a

imran khan. al jazeera. >> civilian protest again the tactics and the islamic state in iran in the levant. anita, battles are still being fought. so the question has to be, what is your understanding of what is going on? >> reporter: beginning to get a sense of a broad brush detail of what's going on. for want of a better term, the moderate syrian forces are the ones who have decided that they have had enough of the actions of the islamic state of iran in the levant, now of course occupying many areas particularly in the north of the country. so there is a new grouping, a more effective grouping it would seem at the moment of moderate forces facing the islamic state of al qaeda force force ifs in e levalentine. big powerful block of fighters, the were form emerier, towards the end of last year. there was 11 big brightsd briga, are they siding with the free syrian forces? at the moment they are not saying what they are doing. but we understand they are assisting the free syrian forces. they don't

imran khan, al jazeera. >> the fighter for syria there too it's under pressure too. rebel groups have been trying to drive the fighters outer of their strong holds. the battle has stretched to the town of el rocca beings. troops being run by i.s.i.l. in that area the group has apparently withdrawn from several bases in syria, handing them over to jabat el nusra another al qaeda backed groups. >> they have emerged as one of the two strongest groups in syria fighting president assad. now, it's not the first time they clashed with rebel groupings but it's the first time we see a united front formed by rebels whether islamist or not against i.s.i.l. this united front seems to be determined that they will rid syria of this group. the attack honor i.s.i.l. has extended to many groups outside syria and what is very interesting ask 92 thee groups have managed to get the fighters in i.s.i.l. to leave their positions to even run away from outside syria. this is the main objective of this attack, they want to rid the area of such an extremist group and they feel it is necessary

imran khan is in doha. imran why so much violence and why now?> reporter: it's sectarian in nature. there is a political conflict that is turning bloody, and has turned bloody for the last year. also let me give you some grim statistics. we're 15 days into the year. already over 50 people have died. -- 500 people have died. let's take a look. the twisted metal from a bomb blast is once again spread across a bagdad neighborhood. it's a pattern we see time and time again. parked car bombs go off and blood spills. the attacks follow a familiar pattern. al-qaeda-linked troops want to keep sectarian tensions boiling and chaos on the streets. the prime minister is calling this a war on terror, and says those responsible will be punished. >> translator: we will distinguish between houses that were possibly taken over by al-qaeda and used as bases. the houses that were the source of fire that killed our sons will be targeted by our forces. >> reporter: elsewhere in iraq, and it's not just shiite muslims that have been punished. in a northern city car bom

more from imran khan. >>> the agreement to do so was hard-fought. local sunni tribes insisted they be part of other operation. others gray, saying i.s.i.l. group, now mime minister al-maliki is pledged to are are attack. >> the army provides everything it needs in the weapon against terrorists. >> one to two days may you optimistic. surgical air strikes against the i.s.i.l. fighters but they are limited to the cities. others on the border with syria getting prid of the fighters there may prove to be more challenging. increasingly voal critics of the prime minister. >> we call on the government to meet demands of the people. demands that are not related to terrorism by any means. if there's a further escalation of violence in iraq then worse things may happen. especially because of what's happening in the region. >> the reason for the criticism is simple. general elections are scheduled for late april. awmed the political parties will be looking to get themselves into the best position as they can and exr force al-maliki to act. imran khan, al jazeer

imran khan is in doha, imran, where such a drastic increase in violence?> really, what we're seeing is a sectarian war breaking out in iraq. now it doesn't fit the legal definition of a civil war yet, but that is the fear of many in iraq. for a very long time, the sunni community has felt disenfranchised. it targets them and locks up the leaders in secret prisons. that has lead to a rise of al-kei da, and al-qaeda-linked groups in a resurgence. so there's a sectarian element to all of this, and because there are sunny politician who have openly criticized the prime minister, and it has allowed those people that are even more angry and don't want to be part of the political process to take up violent acts, and we have seen this for at least a year now. last year was the bloodiest year iraq has seen since 2008 and already this month alone, we have seen nearly 500 people die. let's take a look right now at the result of that violence. >> reporter: once again the twisted metal from a bomb blast is spread across a bagdad neighborhood. it's a pattern we see time

imran khan, al jazeera. >> the u.s.promises to send a shipment of air to surface missiles to help iraq's fight but new affiliates are growing, threatening to undo the peace that america fought so hard for. jonathan betz is here to explain. >> sunni stronghold minorities who feel marginalized by the prime minister. familiar to a lot of americans because you might remember back in 2004 this, four american contractors lynched in fallujah. that sparked a major u.s. offensive. america's bloodiest battles since vietnam were fought in anbar. 1300 americans died there, more than a third of all u.s. soldiers killed in iraq. but the tide did turn. back in 2007 it was called the awakening. the u.s. paid to switch sides and it worked. now it's feared that work erased, the islamic state in iraq and the levant, now an al qaeda affiliate, now controls parts of fallujah and ramadi. partly because there are three parties at work. you have the iraqi government, the prime minister, you also have that al qaeda group and then in the middle

. >> for more, imran khan, who has done a lot of reporting in iraq joins us here in the studio. we are hearing that a deal has been made in anbar province. what do you know about that? >> it was an interim agreement, announced through the mosques of the local area through the area this morning. what the tribal chiefs have decided to do, in conjunction with the government and army is to allow the army to refer further back from anbar and mountain operation with the local police forces to get rid of the i.s.i.l. fighters and tribes loyal to them. the police is a better acceptable way of the working than the iraqi army is. the iraqi army is divisive for a lot of tribes in the area that see it as a tool that was shi'a led. the police forces are more acceptable. what they are going to do is they'll go in and take over police check posts and get the police in the area so security can return. you saw the pictures of the humanitarian situation. one of the things they are hoping to do is get people into their homes. that means there was a change in tactic. we saw the army surround the an

to talk more about this i'm joined by our correspondent imran khan who reported from iraq. fallujah under the control of militants. is that the case or not? >> it depends how you look at this. yes, there are elements that have taken over government buildings. the iraqi sources said to us, "yes, it's under the control of the militants." what is happening is the iraqi army are on the outskirts, negotiating with the tribes to go into the city to take it over. the sunni tribes of fallujah are sworn to defend fallujah. they know the city and want to the say that we got rid of these militants without help from the iraqi army. there are those people in baghdad, in the central government. you say, "this is not the case." the army should take the lead in this operation. >> that's the point. why does the army have to take control. >> the army has to take control because the sunni groups there, the sunni tribal groups are stopping the army from going into fallujah, because they say we would like to do this ourselves. the tribes are split. there are those that have some sympathy, that

the government and tribal leaders have struck a deal to drive out the fighters as imran khan reports. >> as the standoff between al qaeda-linked group and pro-government sunni tribes continues. the humanitarian crisis is worse. some fuel and food gets into the town, but it's not enough. >> there's nothing table in fallujah, government services are provided. no oil, gas, petrol. the terrible conditions are affecting the people of fallujah. >> pro-government fighters called on them to leave and alert a full-scale attack on the city. prime minister nouri al-maliki spoke to the nation in a televised address, urging tribal leaders to take the initiative. >> translation: i call on them to take action. we are with them. the army is ready, but we want them to take the initiative to pull the rug from under the feet of evil people and to drive them outside the cities, where they'll be targeted by armed forces and chased away by the people of anbar and fallujah. i call on them to unite. >> an interim deal has been struck which saw iraqi army forces withdraw from anbar province, and the local tri

for more we go to imran khan. >> fighters from the al qaeda-linked islamic state in levant claim to have taken over the main highway into fallujah. one man shouts, "god is great", and points to a burnt-out vehicle claimed it be from iraq's army. iraqi forces travelled to fallujah to battle forces. the frontline moved to the outskirts of fallujah. >> sunni tribal leaders are not allowing israeli fighters to enter the town. it's a sign of how little they trust the government of nouri al-maliki. the prime minister is not backing down, describing the operation as vital to the security of iraq. >> translation: there's nothing left in that sovereignty. we have to uni-item to fight for those -- yin ute to fight for those destroying processes. >> the sunni tribal leaders in ramadi. the other main town in anbar province have secured the city. fallujah is tense. >> sunni tribal leaders say they've been harassed targeted and arrested by government forces and are calling for the reform of the sahwa, a paramilitary force disbanded when al qaeda was defeated in 2008. with little trust on either side,

imran khan reports. >> after a standoff lasting day, the iraqi army is ready to go into the city of fallujah, and fight the al qaeda-linked group. the agreement to do so is hard-fought. local tribes insisted they be part of any operation. other tribes in the area have disagreed. >> translation: the tribal revolutionaries will fit to protect fallujah, and we will take on anyone from the sectarian government and repel the dirty act by the central government. >> the standoff is an indication of the tension between sunni tribes in anbar and the shia led government. now prime minister nouri al-maliki has his agreement and is poised to act. >> translation: there's increased coordination between the army and tribesman. i think this issue will be resolved within one or two days to expel the armed groups. >> one or two days is optimistic. the israeli army sent out a video against the i.s.i.l. they are limited to the cities. others are on the border with syria, and getting rid of the fighters. only adding to the woes of the iraqi government are increasingly vocal visitors. >> we call on the government

we go imran khan for more on the fighting. >> fighters from the al qaeda-linked state in the levant claim they have taken over the main highway into the town of fallujah. one man shouts god is great as he gestures to a burnt-out vehicle, claimed to be from iraq's army. they say they sent reinforcements to iraq to battle forces. the fighting has moved to the outskirts of fallujah. sunni tribal leaders have not allowed iraqi fighters to enter the town, saying they should head any negotiations. it's a sign of how little they think of nouri al-maliki. the prime minister is not backing down, describing the operation as vital to the security of iraq. >> translation: there's nothing left for us in the sovereignty. we have to unite to fight for ones destroying our country, to stand by the security forces and make sure we succeed in the political process they want destroyed. >> the sunni tribal leaders in ramadi, and other anbar province managed to rerout, and take the city. but fallujah is tense. sunni tribal leaders say they've been harassed, targeted and arrested by government forces and call f

imran khan has more. >>> the twisted metal from a bomb blast is once again spread across a neighborhoodrked car bombs go off and blood spills. there has been no immediate claim of responsibility. but the attacks follow a familiar pattern. al da linked groups want to keep tensions boiling. the prime minister is calling this a war on terror. >> translator: we'll distinguish between houses that were forcibly taken over by al-qaeda and used as bases, and houses who's residence were incorporated with them. the houses that were the force of rebel forces will be targeted. >> reporter: elsewhere, the m mun -- funeral, car bombs brought more misery. more than 500 people have died as a result of violence across rooirn. >>> the un secretary general has urged that more than half of the population needs help in syria. meeting is part of the un's biggest-ever request for a single crisis. these are pictures from the conference in kuwait city. bangui moon is speaking once again. kuwait has pledged half a billion dollars, and the united states $380 million. >> some of our support will help syrians immed

. >> imran khan has reported extensively from iraq and joins us in the studio. put this into context for us. why are the attacks happening in shia-dominated area? >> let's break them down. the first attack was in a shi'a-dominated area. it's two fold. you have the shia-dominated area, that the sunni groups are too close iran, who is close to the syrian government. they say they have not been given enough rights under the shia-dominated government, so they have grievances and feel like they are being attacked in fallujah and ramadi. in backooufa the attack took place at a funeral for a sunni militiaman who was pro-government. he was a sunni fighter fighting on the pro-government side. that's why it's likely this would have been an attack from i.s.i.l. it's sebbing taria and -- sectarian and do with the sunni groups. the only response they have is the attacks taking place. >> a big challenge for the iraqi government. thank you for putting that into context for us. >> now, world powers may not be able to stop the fighting in syria that raged on four years, but they

we have more from al jazeera's imran khan. >> after a standoff lasting days the iraqi army is ready to go to the city of fallujah, and fight the al qaeda-linked group i.s.i.l. the agreement to do so was heartfought. sunni tribes insisted they be part of the situation. others disagreed saying i.s.i.l. fighters were protecting fallujah. the standoff is an indication of the sunni tribe and shia-led government disagreements. nouri al-maliki now has an agreement to act. >> translation: there's increased coordination between the army and tribesman. the army provides the tribes with weapons and everything they need in the battle against the terrorists. the issue will be resolved within one or two days of expelling the groups. >> the iraqi army sent out a video of air strikes against the i.s.i.l. they are limited to the cities. other strongholds are on the desert. getting rid of the fighters there will be challenging. adding to the iraqi government are critics of the prime minister. >> translation: we call on the government meet the demands of the people, demands not related to terrorism by an

al jazeera's imran khan has the latest. >> fighters from the al qaeda-linked state in the levant claim they have taken over the main highway into the town of fallujah. a man shouts god is great as they look at a burnt out vehicle, claimed to be from the iraq army. they say they sent reinforcements from syria to iraq to battle the tribal forces. >> after four days of fighting the front line moved to the outskirts of fallujah. tribal leaders have not allowed iraqi fighters to enter the town saying they should head operations. it's a sign how little they trust prime minister benyamin netanyahu. he is not backing down. he scribed the operation as vital to iraq. >> translation: there's nothing left in that sovereignty. we have to unite to fight for the ones destroying our country, standing by our security forces and make sure we proceed in a political process they want destroyed. >> the sunni tribal leaders in ramadi, the town in anbar province, routed the fighters and in combination with the police force secured the city. fallujah is tense. sunni target leaders say they have been harassed,

imran khan joins me in the studio.ther attack in baghdad, but on a military center. >> it was a recruitment center, recruiting for what was going on. the army recruits were at the outskirts of the base. it wasn't that secure. anyone could join the line, and that's where the suicide bomber blew-up his vest. we are likely to see more attacks like this as the operation goes on. iraq's army struck a deal with the pro-government sooupy tribes in anbar, and they decided to move to the outskirts and allow the pro-government sunni tribes and the police forces to go and take over security. prime minister nouri al-maliki said, "this is up to the tribes, something they need to do." let's take a look at what is going on. >> a standoff between fighters and the al qaeda-linked groups. pro-government continues in fallujah. the humanitarian crisis gets worse. fuel and food is getting into the town, it is not enough. >> translation: there's nothing available in fallujah. government services are not provided. there's no gas, oil or petr

we go to imran khan for more. >> fighters from the al qaeda-linked islamic state of levant claim to haveen over the main highway into fallujah. one man gestures to a burnt out vehicle said to be from the iraq army. they say they sent forces from fallujah to iraq to battle forces. after four days of fighting the frontline moved to the outskirts of fallujah. the fighters have not allowed iraqi army to enter the town. it shows how little the tribal leaders distrust nouri al-maliki. the prime minister is not backing down. he describes the operation as crucial to iraq. >> translation: there's nothing left in the sovereignty. we have to unite to fight for the ones destroying our country, standing by our security forces and make sure we succeed in a political process they want destroyed. >> the sunni tribal leaders in ramadi, the other main town managed to route al qaeda fighters and in corporation with the police force secured the city. fallujah is tense. sunni tribal leaders say they've been harassed targeted and arrested by government forces in recent years, and are calling for the reform of

more from imran khan. >> after a standoff lasting day, the iraqi army is ready to go into the fallujahity and fight the i.s.i.l. the agreement to do so was hard fought. local sunni tribes insisted they be part of any attack. others disagreed. the standoff is an indication of the tension between sunni tribes in anbar and the shi'a-led government. the prime minister nouri al-maliki has his agreement and is poised to act. >> translation: there's increased coordination with the army and tribesman. the army provides the tribes with weapons and everything they need in the battle against the terrorists. i think the issue will be resolved within one for two days. >> that may be optimistic. the iraqi army sent out a video of surgical airtricks, but they are limited to the cities. other strong holds are in the desert, on the boarder with syria, and getting rid of the fighters there is challenging. adding to the iraqry government are vocal critics of the prime minister >> translation: we call on the government to meet demonstrates of the people, demands not related to terrorism by any means. if t