we cannot win the heart and minds of the syrians while we are killing syrians.e cannot sustain four years in that position as a government. and me as president, while the rest of the world, most of the world, the great powers, the regional power, are against me and my people are against me. that's impossible. i mean this logic has no leg to stand on. so this is not realistic and this is against our interests as government is to kill the people. what do we get? charlie: there are weapons of war that have been used that most people look down on with great -- one is chlorine gas. they believe that has been used here. they said there is evidence of that and they would like to have the right to inspect to see where it's coming from. as you know, barrel bombs have been used. and they come from helicopters. and the only people who have helicopters is the syrian army. president assad: it's very important. this is part of the malicious propaganda against syria. first of all, the chlorine gas is not military gas. you can buy it anywhere. charlie: but it can be weaponized

by patriotic syrian opposition, that represents the syrians. and we have it. we have -- >> what dow mean by sharing power. >> i mean if you want to go back to constitutional procedures they should go to elections they can share in the parliament and the local administration in the government and everything. and to be part of the decision in the government like any country. >> you and your father have held power in syria for how many years? the combination of you and your father how many years? >> in a calculation of years or public support. >> years. >> it doesn't matter how many years. >> it does matter. >> what matters for us do the syrians support these two presidents. it doesn't mat ferr they are father and son. we don't say george w. bush is the son of gorge bush. it's different. he's president i'm president. he has support from that generation. i have support from this generation. that's the question. it doesn't matter how many it's not a family rule. >> it's not? >> no, no it's not it's not family rule it has nothing to do with me being president, when

in addition to armed groups such as the free syrian army and the syrian revolutionary's front al qaeda al nusra front isis operate within this committee and its crimes against those unable to leave against syria. we know and this was in the testimony by the deputy assistant secretary clements. half of its prewar population in syria has been displaced. half of a country, gone, displaced. and that is almost without precedent, anywhere in the world. the euro mediterranean human rights network reported in late 2013 that at least 6,000 women have been reported being raped by one armed group or another. the genuine figure was likely much higher due to underreporting. in fact the international rescue committee reported two years ago that the primary reason for syrians to flee their country has been fear of rape. the various armed groups terrorizing people in syria operate with impunity. syria's not a party to the rome statute, the international criminal court has no jurisdiction over these human rights violators although there could be a referral if they were so inclined from the security cou

what has happened, unfortunately, in the syrian conflict. it spilled over to neighbouring countries by humanitarian crisis or the rise of i.s.i.s. or d.a.e.s.h. when we talk about the battlefields or battle theatres that the countries and groups are fighting. they involve the bashar al-assad government fighting the opposition. at the same time you have a multitude of other more pressing rise of d.a.e.s.h. coming across the border that has sidelined the issue, and the importance of the syrian conflict within the country has become more of a regional pressing issue for the united states and allied forces, and ironically with iranian, fighting against i.s.i.s. it is more complex than what it was in the beginning of the crisis in syria in 2011. how important is iran in helping the bashar al-assad regime keep its deprip on whatever small -- grip on whatever small part of control. >> there's no question that the iranians have been providing assistance to the st peter's basilica government. it goes back to syria and iran seeing each other as a regi

more than 300 people the majority syrian refugees.hat we understand is that they will be questioned. the policy is when turkey arrests illegal immigrants they usually deport them back to their country, but since these people are syrians they are expected to be placed in camps. but this incident really is just the latest in a series of incidents which involves syrians trying to find their way to europe trying to find a better life. just a few days ago a ship sank off of the coast of italy, and some people on board were refugees living in lebanon, syrian palestinians who took the dangerous trip. >> it says something about the desperation of people who are desperate to get out of syria. why would the turkish coast guard use live ammunition on a civilian cargo vessel and there were children aboard this vessel? >> reporter: we still do not know that. what we understand from turkish officials is that they fired warning shots and the warning shots were ignored. but what we also know is that turkey has come under a lot of pressure. turkey is

as a majority of syrians are left to watch the solution from the side lines. >>> we can talk to the syrian academic and writer and an associate analyst at the doha institute. thank you for talking to us here in al jazeera. we have seen over the last four years pretty much an international impasse in terms of the way that they dealt with the conflict. of the existing current international processes, are there any that could yield an impact negatively or positively. we all agree now, that the conflict in syria is a war by proxy, how they are supporting different local proxies. we have maybe iran and russia. we have the united states saudi arabia supporting the opposition. and i think that has led to a stalemate on the ground. neither party can allow the proxies to lose or be defeated. any agreement on the upper level will have an impact. if we have led, for example, an agreement, welcome. >> indeed indeed. >> so we are going to have - we'll see it on the ground in syria. if we don't have agreement on the back of that failure on the ground in syria. we have to stay in this place. russia turke

the syrian command reports. osama ben javis has the story. >> this is a camp 16 years ago where some of the top commanders were being trained. this man was among them. abu hamad el shami. killed in a syrian air attack in idlib on thursday. al shami traveled to iraq before the fall of baghdad in 2003. handed over to the syrian authorities who later released him. he later returned to baghdad and became a military commander of al qaeda in iraq.met every important figure in al qaeda's top command that's where he joined the ranks of el nusra front. >> this is going to be an important blow. >> over the years those gains were challenged by more moderate syrian rebels and later by islamic state of iraq and the levant. target the leadership of all rebel groups fighting against it. in a divided international community hasn't helped syrians seeking regime change. >> the regime has gotten stronger in the last several months. it seems to have picked up speed since the united states began to bomb i.s.i.s. and nusra as well, c

they were between the syrian government side and the syrian opposition. the u.s.as involved in that process, but with russia as a gar antor of the process. what's different this time is that he is suggesting that actually, u.s. diplomats would have to sit down with diplomats working working for assad. what was clear when the secretary of state spoke, though is he believes there really needs to be a new start to the political process right now. >> we are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomaticoutcom because everybody agrees there is no military solution. there is only a political solution. but to get the assad regime to negotiate, we are going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change the calculation about negotiation. >> that's underway right now and i am convinced that with the efforts of our allies and others there will be increased pressure on assad. >> kerr road crew is on his way to where you are for talks on iraq's nuclear program. where

more than 200,000 syrians have died.e know 12 million people inside the country desperately need some sort of help. could the international community have done something sooner because situation in syria is now so much more complicated than it was right at the beginning because you have so many groups fighting for power? >> the have national community has failed syria on multiple grounds. >> what could it have done early on? >> the international community should not have -- particularly the western powers have not basically said we want assad to go without really thinking of instruments and tools to get him out. thing said we will get him out in the same way. he believed the western powers would offer syria on a silver plaider this is the greatest crisis since worlds war 2. 3.6 million refugees, 40% of the syrian population are either displaced or refugees. half of the population need food to survive. two generations of children, the syrian children go to ankara aman and see the plight of the children. no education what

right, we can talk to syrian academic and writer. he's an associate analyst at the doha institute. how far were the hopes and the optimism of the deraa protests resting upon the intervention of nato countries on the west as they saw in libya. how much did they rely on the outside intervention. >> at the very beginning the calculation was like this. we know the regime will use a zero policy towards the opposition, but the world will not allow or tolerate the zero policy of the regime in 1982 the regime delayed hama the world did not see what happened in hama. the media were not so much developed, communication was not developed. the world will not allow that. that tended to be a big mistake. that tragedy was transmitted live on international television. and the world did nothing. when the regime decided to use all sorts of weapons and heavy weaponry and chemical weapons. at the beginning no one was hoping for any start of intervention no one expected things would go that way, turning into a civil conflict, turning into a fully fledged

seven syrian men had assets frozen. has been accused of acting as a middle man for oil purchases from i.s.i.l. e.u. placed sanctions on 218 people and 69 syrian entities. let's bring in an independent journalist, and joshua landers, director for middle east studies, joining us from norman oklahoma. great to have you both with us. >> agreed to be here. >> there are words that struck me that you wrote 18 months ago saying syria is everything the most important story in the world right now. what was it. what were you seeing that the world didn't grasp at that moment? >> i guess i look back to 2012 where i uncover the crisis. the first time i went to alaska they had picked up arms after the school was bombed and nonviolent protests for the right to vote in their country. so that is the syrian revolution, and to see how it was deteriorated. in a terrifying but predictable way, i say it is predictable to see how it's gotten out of control. >> did you think at this moment it was a humanitarian crisis. >> i wouldn't imagine tha

the moderate syrian militia only a few months ago owned 1 or 2% of syrian territory.t's a little bit more but to turn them into winners to destroy both nusra and i.s.i.s, as well as the assad regime would require an amazing amount of money and energy on the part of the united states. the u.s. is not going to engage that way on syria. could the international community rally and send in an occupying force disarm the over 1200 militias, it could will it? unlikely. so syria is being left alone to itself to fight this out and that means that it's locked into i think years of civil war. because all the various proxy -- all the various interested international powers are funding and arming their proxies enough so they will not lose. >> i know it's going to be a long road ahead. what does a postwar syria look like mr. landis? >> i don't think we see a postwar syria yet. but it's going to be fragmented. i don't think assad is strong enough to reconstitute syria and powers wouldn't allow him in a way. the united states and the west is crushing assad with sanctions but they're a

are they in the syrian government, out of the syrian government. >> no. >> you are not able to say?no we are really not able to. >> all we say is there were different kind of you know source people that we have been able to connect with. and people would, you know have no reason to lie to u as far as we can tell and again, they believe austin is alive. >> so you have no idea who is holding him or where he may be? >> no no. i do believe that he is still in syria. i believe he's being held in syria. but who is holding him, we just really have any idea. >> no. i mean there's no - there's no indication that he's being held by you know alexander yesyn or any other extremist group. that being said we can't say anything because we just simply don't know. we haven't been contacted. >> the state department said in 2013 that it believed that the syrian government had him in custody, what do you belief is the likelyhood of that. >> well if they have that information, they have our email and phone number. my name is mum, and, you know we strongly encourage them to share that with us you know if

more than 200,000 syrians have been killed. more than 3.5 million became refugees in neighboring countries and 80% live in poverty. across the country cities and villages in ruins. >> syrians are exhausted frustrated, so much daily suffering, and too much blood has been spilled. the bill has been high for both sides. the bloodshed must stop. most syrians are now lost, don't know where things are heading and know things have gone out of their hands. >> foreign fighters flooded into syria, including those linked to al-qaeda who came to help the opposition, while the government has help from members of hezbollah and fighters from iran. to add to the complexity, the islamic state of iraq and the levant now controls parts of syria. many of the activists who first rose up against assad found themselves targeted by isil. >> now the problem is not only with assad. the foreign powers fighting each other on our land, this is what changed the course of the revolution. >> during the early days of the revolution, the country was split betwe

he was killed in ray syrian army attack in it lib on thursday.fought in afghanistan with al qaeda in the late 1990s he traveled to iraq before the fall of baghdad in 2003, he was arrested by the iraqi intelligence services and handed over to the syrian authorities who later released him. he then returned to the baghdad and became a military commander of al cal killed a in iraq, he met every important top figure. that's where he joined the ranks of al-nusra in 2012. >> he's a senior military commander for al-nusra, this will be a bigelow. >> reporter: over the years al-nusra front took many extra teen i can positions from the syrian army. those gains were traveled later by isil. the in fighting has helped the syrian government take back control and target the leadership of all rebel groups fighting against it. a divided international community hasn't helped syrians seeking regime change. >> the regime has gotten stronger in the last several months. it seems to be -- it seems to have picked up speed since the united states began to bomb isis and pl

the free syrian army, and the syrian revolutionary front al qaeda, operate within this committee, heinous crimes against those unable to leave syria. we know and this was in the testimony by the deputy assistant secretary clements. half of its prewar population has been displaced, half of a country gone, displaced. and that is almost without precedent, anywhere in the world. the mediterranean human rights network reported in 2013, that at least 6,000 women have reported being raped by one armed group or another. and the genuine figure was much higher due to underreporting in fact, the international rescue committee reported two years ago, that the primary reason for syrians to flee their country has been fear of rape. syria's not a party to the rome statue, the international criminal court has no jurisdiction over these human rights violators, there could be a referral if they were so inclined from the security council, even if the icc could get involved, russia has already indicated its opposition to that kind of refersal. that's why i introduced last year, and i will do it again soon, a

the horrors are incomprehensible. 1% of all syrians have been killed. chemical weapons, city after city turned into rubble. 80% of the people who stay live in poverty. there is no question the international community has failed the syrian people. what do you see is the biggest failure? >> you know i mean the syria conflict is the first in the history of humanity that has unfolded in front of the world in real time thanks to the internet thanks to social media it has unfolded in real time from day 1. even though all sorts of parties everyone it seems had some thing some way to weigh in, from the beginning, very few came across and actually managed to help. and in fact now four years later, you just have so many hands involved in the conflict. so many different parties each with their own agenda competing agendas and proix proxy wars and the conflict has become so complicated one of the worst wars since world war ii. >> can the international players as you say who have been waging a proxy war can they even agree on what to do with so many diverging intere

has been involved in a process involving the syrians before but the syrian government negotiated with the syrian opposition, with russia and the u.s. acting as the guarantors of the pros. he's now talking about direct negotiations between u.s. diplomats and diplomats representing the regime of bashar al assad. that would be something new. i think the reason they are talking about all of this now is because they had vested all their hope in the process that was set out by the u.n.'s special envoy. he had a plan for freezes and ceasefire starting in aleppo. i've been speaking to a number of senior diplomats who believe that process is stalled to the point of almost being dead. they are now talking about rather than the bottom up process like that, going back to the idea of a talk down process. you were talking about the regional and international parties involved. if everyone is around the tail, it can be solved. >> where you are in lausanne is where we'll find iran's prime minister there for talks with secretary of state john kerry. those talks are over iran's nuclear program. the dead

no country has been affected more than turkey because of syrian crisis. too many refugees, and in some cities syrians are more than the original inhabitants of turkish citizens. turkish received in three days 200,000 refugees from kobani. this is more than the total refugees being taken by all european countries in the last three years. in all statistics you can see how turkey has contributed to the improvement of humanitarian situation on the ground. and also our position regarding fighting against international terrorism has been very clear. turkey is a country which suffered from terrorism in the past, and therefore, turkey was the first country declaring daesh as a terrorist organization in october 2013. and turkey was the first country attacking to daesh convoy when they approached our border in november of 2013. we never tolerated the presence of any terrorist organization on -- close to our borders, but everybody must understand 1,295 kilometer long border syria and iraq. today there is no [ inaudible ] and turkey is facing big challenges. sitting

the syrian government told us the same thing. so what do we need? >> we need the line of communication between the two of them. and, you know, we do not want a kinetic action, rescue attempt or anyone's life in danger. we want dialogue. that is what we want. >> yes. >> we think that with dialogue our son will soon be home >>> you recently wrote an op-ed saying that as the white house does a review of its hostage policy, it should involve the families of host edges, and former hostages, more than it is now. have? >> the number one suggestion is that someone needs to have responsibility, accountability and authority solely towards bringing hostages safely home. exist. >> not that we are suggesting a new level of bureaucracy or anything like that. all the resources are dedicated. what needs to happen is one entity that is already part of the process, that's already funded in the process. that is just not functioning efficiently and effectively, that a person be designated. >> should be centralized. >> to have a singular objective towards the hostage, a

are killing syrians but they are killing on aside of the iranians the syrian group -- >> i want to talk about hezbollah, to battle i.s.i.l. it is not clear how much they will assist these fighters in protecting themselves from the syrian government. what do you think about u.s. policy towards syria is it coherent at this point? >> it is unfortunately -- it's not. and i think you know again while one element of it is fighting i.s.i.l. is good, it lacks the comprehensive approach into addressing the problem which is by ignoring the underlying cause of the rise of i.s.i.l. which is the assad atrocities and the failure of the international community to protect civilians. we demand that it must be accelerated it must be increased in scope and it should not be like all of other -- the previous steps that the u.s. demonstration had done, coming too little too late. at some point had the u.s. supported the free syrian army, we not see i.s.i.l to take leadership, the u.s. is not alone, there is an international community, they are friends of syria, they can do a lot. i think on this occasion of

they believed they would be able to overthrow the syrian government. many hope the army should turn within the community and it would come to the rescue. that is not how events unfolded. the revolution turned into a civil war, and syria a battle ground or international forces to fight for their own agenda. more than 2,000 syrians have been killed and 3.5 million became refugees. 80% live in poverty. across the country, visitors. >> syrians are exhausted, frustrated. so much daily suffering. too much blood. the bill is high the bloodshed most stop. most syrians are lost don't know where things are heading and they know they've gone out of their hands. >> fighters flooded into syria, ipp . to add to the complexity. the islamic state of iraq and levant controls parts of syria. many. activists who rose up found themselves targeted by i.s.i.l. >> now the problem is not with bashar al-assad. the foreign fighters fighting each other on our land. this changed the course of the revolution. >> during the early days of revolution the country was split between sup

and our responsibilities towards syrian and the syrian people, that we -- we will continue to support the syrian opposition more expanded support for the syrian opposition to reach a acceptable political solution. we hope to reach this landmark for comprehensive political solution through our second meeting for the syrian opposition meeting conference that will be held in spring and egypt. in this context, we are asking the international community and those who ever influence in syria to work against -- to work in a decisive syrian political manager to reach a political agreement in syria. your honors and excellecencies, the arab league has worked hard to reach this objective to the country's oblige with the international request but these have not found their way to implementation yet especially that israel has not yet obliged by these conventions and it has refused to join the organization for disarmament and insists to possess a huge nuclear arsenal which is a huge charge a international security and this creates an imbalance in international justice. we have to reevaluate this ent

what about the syrian government. do they help you in any way. >> well at the moment each side is helping those within areas of control. there's 4.8 million people in hard to reach areas. they are between the lines of the two sides in this conflict. they are the ones hard to reach. there's no cooperation between the warring parties to allow humanitarians to reach those that need the aid of the most. that's women and children. it's not just the syrian government, it's all sides that need to recognise that aide is a federal right, and civilians are not part of the conflict. that is not recognised by all sides. >> thank you >>> thank you. >> in somali al-shabab fighters detonated a car bomb outside headquarters. the men were looking for the president when they tried to storm the compound. there are reports of casualties more details as we get it. >> somalia's government executed more people than any other country in sub-saharan africa. >> 150 death sentences within handed down. 86 have been executed. we visit a death row

a small red dress for the thousands of lives the syrian civil war has cost. terry: in berlin the prime minister's been holding talks with one of the main representatives of the syrian opposition. president of the national coalition for syrian revolutionary and opposition or's is. we asked him earlier what the world could do and what his organization is doing to fight the islamic state and assad regime. >> they have brought a lot of militias and they are also committing crimes against the syrian people. same as al qaeda or isil. in order to get rid of this terror, we have to treat it from its roots, which is intelligence services of the syrian regime. the regime and the organizations are two different faces of the same coin. in terms of isil groups, we have been fighting. we have been fighting the terror led by a sod and the terror led by al qaeda. >> the president of the opposition coalition. >> they have drawn in large numbers of foreign fighters. there is concern a 16-year-old girl from munich may have gone to syria to join the islamic state. >> she disappe

the syrian people are being betrayed, and this will not continue this way. i'm instructing my special envoy rey mysterio -- special envoy, throughout the region including with the syrian parties. specifically. he and his team will work to operationalize and pressure elements in the geneva communique. i pray that collectively we implement the geneva agreement endorsed by the security council. how to do that i count on your full urgent support. following this summit. i will visit kuwait to attend the third international humanitarian conference for syria. i thank his highness the emir of kuwait for his compassionate leadership in convening that gather gathering for the third time. i thank you for your generous contributions and urge you to do more to respond to the suffering and misery reasserting from the worst crisis in the world today. lebanon is unique in the face of the continuing impact of the syrian conflict including a growing threat by d.a.e.s.c.h and others. yet lebanon continues to stand as an example of co-existence. i urge lebanese political leader

syrian rebel groups.n refugees have fled the country. more than 200,000 have died, most from syrian military bombing of territory controlled by his opponents. with the rise of isis in syria toppling assad is no longer the highest priority there for the united states. and last month, secretary of state john kerry told cbs news the u.s. is open to negotiating with syria, something we discovered, assad wants. we traveled to damascus this past week and met with assad for an interview, under the conditions that we use syrian tv technicians and cameras. we began by asking him about american air strikes against isis in syria. how much of a benefit are you getting from american air strikes in syria reducing the power of isis? >> bashar al-assad: sometimes, you could have local benefit but, in general, if you want to talk in terms of isis, actually isis has expanded since the beginning of the strikes. not like some american wants to sugarcoat the situation as the... to say that it's getting better, isis is being d

the syrian crisis has become nothing but a catastrophe. deep and pain.o the international conference. we witness the suffering campaigns of syrian people especially that the situation is deteriorating, leaving a vacuum taken advantage of by terrorist organizations. this no doubt continues to pose a threat to the region. that's why we need to align and share arab vision with the aim of salvaging syria and its security. we'll continue to support the diplomatic political solution to put an end to the bloodshed and maintain the fabric of a syrian people. egypt still deals with the crisis in two perspectives. first, supporting the syrian people's aspirations to a civil democratic state. second is standing up to the terrorist groups that are rife in syria, and based on egypt's historical responsibility towards syria, egypt took the initiative as supported and backed by the arab countries, and worked with moderate syria opposition, with the aim of reaching the desired diplomatic solution. lastly egypt hosted a meeting where a large spectrum of the syrian opposi

-- to syrian crisis. we can start -- really we need to get negotiation to stop such a channel of blood in syria. but the problem is the regime. when the regime doesn't like to start -- when he doesn't like to start the negotiation as we like, he is consistent to go in military solution. this is very big problem. to us he call the military group came from iran and iraq and from afghanistan, it means he -- he's not really think to solve the problem. he's just -- his policy to continue killing the people and -- until he believes that he can win the war. which is impossible. after four years it is big message to the world and all of the syrian people that the revolution will continue until we reach to achieve our goals, which is dignity and -- and dignity and freedom. >> all right. vice president of the syrian national coalition, many thanks. >>> still to come here on the news hour no signs of relief. migrant arriving in greece are being given indefinite detention. >>> and why justice is hard to come by for p

the syrian people should be -- and the syrian opposition together should be united and have their free will to say what they want and how they want it. not dictating by the international power. >> i am so sorry sir, we will have to leave it there syrian activation thank you for coming in, thank you. >> 100 people are feared trapped under rubble. at least five people were killed in the the accident at a sent factory which is southwest of the capitol 40 people have been taken to hospital and recovery teams are continuing to search for survivors. live now from the capitol. so there is still a search for survivors going on, or they think it could be ten and 40, any news on that. >> rescue operation is still going on. they aring thing everybody there is at least 40 to 50 people still trapped inside. 55 people have been rescued some of them seriously injured and have been taken to hospital. immediate rah report and authorities say that the six people are so far dead, and this operation is going to continue because we know that people are rescued everybody after several days so they have to c

opposition along the lines of course with that free syrian army. apparently whether the opposition in the region or in syria are taking matters into their own hands and are acting accordingly. >> we are seeing countries in the arab league and arab world taking more action just in yemen over the past few days. could we see the same take place in places like syria? >> this is probably the most important development that we've seen that i do think is the beginning of something which is the saudis acting in yemen after they've basically given up on the united states leading some sort of an action there. >> so you know as the united states takes a backseat in the region and only concentrates on its own very immediate concerns which is isil various numbers of countries in the region are taking matters into their own hands. so the egyptians now are becoming more robust and aggressive on the question of libya. iran is becoming more aggressive on the question of iraq. now of course saudi arabia moving in yemen. will turkey move next in syria? that remains t

they'll have to pass through a syrian army checkpoints. a lot fear they may be arrested. >> some of the children they were looking at will not have known anything else other than a refugee camp. >> yes, that's true. some of them are very young, and, really they grew up quickly. if you talk to kids now, they understand what is going on. they say i'm from syria, but i karnt go back. we see the planes in the sky, we were never far where they targeted. we couldn't pass checkpoints. they understand what is happening in the countries. they have lost faith in the international community, now the international community is working for their own interests. they don't care about us. a lot have been angered by a statement made by a c.i.a. director. the u.s. do not want a chaotic fall of the regime. they worry that extremists will take power. for the people how they understand this is that the world wants to keep the syrian president bashar al-assad in power. people here have lost hope a little faith in what is next >>> it's distressing. zeina khodr o

the number of syrians arriving in europe is too small.are talking about 200,000 compares to 3.9 million syrian refugees mostly in countries such as turkey, lebanon jordan, which are straining under the impact of this. so we believe that these countries need help, because refugees should receive the protection that they need, close to home because most of them would like to return home as soon as possible, and europe would be better served by helping syrian refugees in jordan, in lebanon, in turkey, rather than not helping this countries and making it necessary for syrians to come all the way to europe in search for the living conditions that they -- the safety that they need. >> sir, thank you so much for having joined us here on al jazeera, thank you. >> thank you security in ferguson missouri will be handed over to st. louis county police, and missouri state highway patrol. the decision comes after two police officers were shot at a rally on wednesday night. over the resignation of the police chief. jackson quit following a scathing rep

pledged millions more to desperate syrians but what will it take to end the civil war? >>> battling boko haram, al jazeera is told that mer nears are taking on the fighting in nigeria. >>> and protecting the pelicans. the search for whoever is attacking brown pelicans in the florida keys. >> nearly half of the population has fled their homes. the u.n.'s top agency say that world powers must put aside their differences to find a solution, and today the u.s. increased the aid that it is sending to rebel forces, promising $70 million in non-lethal assistance. the opposition has been losing ground to hard line elements within syria. rebels want the u.s. to take more direct action against president bashar al-assad. let's go to the white house where mike viqueira is there for us. so far the president has been reluctant to take more direct action. >> well, it's certainly true, and of all the foreign policy problems nat president has faced, syria is the most vexing and gained the most critics towards president obama and his policies. in the most violent year yet in a conflict o

security council of failing to protect the syrian people. it's four years since the beginning of the up rising against president assad and the fighting shows no sign of ending >>> the iraq government backed by sunni and shia tribes are slowly taking overty -- tick crete -- tick receiptkrittikrit. >>> pro russian rebels have hit the economy hard. >>> the police chief of the city of ferguson in the u.s. state of missouri has resigned. thomas jackson has faced criticism since one of his police officers shot dead an unarmed black teenager miking brown, in august of last year. >>reporter: thomas jackson has long maintained there was no racism on his watch but on wednesday he became the sixth official forced to leave their job in the small midwestern city accused of systemic racism. >> it's a mutual separation. >>reporter: it had long been demanded by a protest movement formed after the shooting of michael brown last august in ferguson. the belief that the police force targeted the african-american community was vindicated by last week's departmen

more than 200,000 syrians killed. more than 3.5 million became refugees and cities and villages are in ruins. >> exhausted, so much daily suffering and too much blood has been spilled. the price has been high and the bloodshed must stop. don't know where things are heading and things have gone out of our hands. >> al qaeda came to help the opposition. while the government has been helped by al qaeda and others, activists who first rose up against assad found themselves targeted by assad. assemble this is what changed the course of the revolution,. >> during the early days of the revolution the country whereas split between members of the syrian opposition or the regime. but the country has many players no winners on either side. including those who have been left to watch from the sideline. >> joining me is an associate analyst at the doha institute. what were your initial thoughts whether people took to the streets in what appeared to be an gang protest in a time called the arab spring? >> if you go back to the part

>> >>> failing to help the syrian people. leading aid organizations accuse the u.n. of not doing enough to stem the crisis. hello, welcome to al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha. i'm jane dutton. fighting for control - important ground gained if the battle for tikrit. >>> two police men shot outside a station in ferguson, missouri as protests continue over race. >> i'm katherine sawyer in juba i'll be telling you how the south african conflict and a fall in oil prices affects the economy here. >>> we begin with a war in syria, which is going into the fifth year, 21 leading aid organizations accusing the u.n. security council failing to help the people. the group says measures have not been in force much the latest pictures are said to show the aftermath of a barrel bombing, the syrian government accused of the financing to hughes the illegal weapons on civilians. the battle for aleppo split the country. as part of our special coverage to mark the conflict entering its fifth year, zoed reports on how -- zeina khodr reports on how the fighting split what was

more than 300 people the majority syrian refugees.hat we understand is that they will be questioned. the policy is when turkey arrests illegal immigrants they usually deport them back to their country, but they are expected to either be placed in camps, but this incident, really just the latest in a series of incidents which involve syrians trying to find their way to europe trying to find a better life. just a few days ago, a ship sank off of the coast of italy, and some people who were on board that ship were refugees living in lebanon, syrian palestinians who escaped the fighting in damascus, they took this dangerous journey, but they had no other choice they felt. >>> egypt is pitting its hopes for economic revival on a financial summit which is just getting underway. heads of state from across the region are attending along with foreign politicians and investors. friday is the first of three days of -- of this conference. several large-scale investments are expected to be announced. this is president sisi just opening the confere