you have the houthis arched sunni tribesman, you have al-qaeda, as well and the presence of isil. >> to think that airstrikes would solve the prop of yemen i think is an overstatement for the simple reason as you said we are talking about a country which has different political factions. adou rabbo mansour hadi represents the sunni but is not popular among the sunnis. he he has backing in places, but people in aden and the south who are sunnis don't like him. they say this is someone who further undermind the south. sunni bribesmen are more loyal to the muslim brotherhood party than hadi. the biggest problem the international community faces is once the dust settles in yemen an airstrikes come to an end bringing together all the political factions i think is going to be the biggest challenge they face. i can't see personally stability in yemen in the near future, because the similar problems that have been going on for many, many decades have to be solved and to solve it, you need to take drastic decisions something that could not be the case for the time being because of the risk of

primarily saudi arabia and iran, who are turning this into something of a proxy war, and, of course, you have al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. what you have are three players, more, who are taking advantage of an inherently weak yemen and all the political vacuums to play out there own battles. yemen. >> when you talk about the united states having a role from outside as this continues to roll out. do you have to have somebody to talk to? if you are at the west asia desk in state, and you pick up a phone, do you have to know there's going to be someone at a phone on the other end whose word means something. >> it makes it much easier. and i think this is one of the problems. we don't know who we are talking do. we work with hardy, he's legitimate government, but the cabinet is not there. there isn't a parliament. it's scattered. i think to the extent that there are serious conversations, they are probably, again, going to be offshore, in doha, riyadh, wherever else the talks are held, and with various political players. can anybody make an agreement that will stick. there was a national partnership

they don't want to be surrounded by the north or the south and even if the houthis take over, you have al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which has used that as a base from which to stage operations not only in saudi arabia but even in the u.s. and that's where the u.s. interests come in bill. >> right. >> we've been allied with that former government that's now been ousted in fighting al qaeda there. >> right. >> so now we don't have eyes and ears on the ground as much as we did and so what are the larger american interests there? >> obama said before that al qaeda is the group most likely to attack us. >> intelligent services believe that. >> and he's said that and he's done what we've usually done. the cia, drone operations -- >> right. >> people think that the president's policy there is incoherent. i don't think it is. i think it's wrong but -- >> how so? what do you mean? >> what i mean is that he's always said his policies about bringing people back no u.s. combat troops. every speech he gives on every action that he's doing is about no combat troops. so this is what he does. he does litt

you have the secessionists in the south, you have al qaeda and the islamic state, you have this powerstruggle. the government split basically, you have two governments and two capitals. and plus, a dire economic situation. and also there's a proxy war going on with various regional powers backing different sides. >> it's a mess. know mohammad, thank you very much, indeed. do stay with us here on bbc world news. still to come on the program, it's the race to clean up rio's olympic venues but will the city make it across the finish line? rich, chewy caramel rolled up in smooth, milk chocolate... let me know if this gets too hot rolo. get your smooth on. >>> you're watching bbc world news. i'm david eades. your headlines. an eclipse of the sun is underway for millions of people across europe and parts of africa and asia. >>> the nigerian president, goodluck jonathan tells the bbc he's confident that the boko haram jihadist group will be beaten although the fate of the kidnapped chibok schoolgirls is still unclear. >>> islamic state extremists say they were behind the attack at the bardo

have. the year 2000 the "uss cole" attacked by al qaeda. what youhave right now is an environment where al qaeda can thrive. it is an environment where isis is thriving. they attacked two mosques killing more than 130 people and wounding hundreds of others in twin suicide bombing attacks. you have the houthis rebels who isis and al qaeda are fighting. they are taking the airports and government buildings as they continue to push to the south where the recognized president is. the united nations security council meeting on sunday in an emergency session gave the united nations full support for president hadi. he appears to be in a precarious position right now as this escalation to civil war continues. perhaps most troubling is we have the potential here for repeat of what we've seen in syria and iraq. that is when you pull out the last remaining of the u.s. special forces there, the last pulled out over the weekend, an environment exists within the escalating civil war for isis and al qaeda to get stronger. that's exactly what they did in syria and

while we have them not signing the peace deal, you have al-qaeda linked groups and smuggling in the north extremely lucrative for the armed groups and the french which seem to have lost interest in the region and the u.n., who don't have enough personnel. it is going to be difficult to bring peace to this area of mali. >> three suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in a series of coordinated attacks across the northeastern city. >> another bloody day in northern nigeria opinion these are victims of the latest attacks by suspected boko haram fighters. medical workers struggle to save those they can a scene that has now become a routine in the north. dozens have been killed in three coordinated attacks to this city home to more than three mill displaced by the boko haram violence. >> the dead are in the morgue, the injured being treated. it was the work of male and female bombers. it is possible, but i can't confirm it now. >> the leader of boko haram pledged loyalty to isil hours after the attack. boko haram hinted at joining forces before, butle timing is important. the group has rec

now you have al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. let's say there's a civil war, and the sides go at it. they'll have to feed i.s.i.s. and they'll want to go after whoever is the victor of that civil war. it's hard to find history, you look at the miles, there's deserts and logistics, and it's difficult to come up with a solution. >>> you mentioned nations coming together. your optimism on that. >> that will be qatar, saudi arabia, but, again, there's no from for them to do that. countries act in their own best interests, there are some saying let them go at it and figure it out and see what will happen. we are standing by and watching multiple humanitarian crisis. libya, syria, yemen, and there'll be, unfortunately, scores of civilians killed. >> if all this plays out and we get to the civil war in yemen and the region is unstable. how much more pressure does that put on president obama to change his idea dism. >> well the president is not looking good. he said about six months ago that yemen is the model for the counterterrorism or

you have popular communities also that used to belong to the former president who just resigned. so you have these three main agents taking place. of course in yemen you also have tribes. you have al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. that's been america's biggest concern. putting all of these players aside -- of course there are a lot more than those. and i can discuss in question/answer session if you want. but looking at yemen right now. what is going oob right now? a houthi movement that ha took over the capital sana. and you have a president and a government that resigned. and so what the houthi group proposed for yemenis is the creation of the 551 transitional national council that will take yemen through another transition for two years. this council will select five members and the five members are going to form a presidential council that is supposed to take care of anything that yemen needs for two years. and then we can have elections. of course the threat of is that we just finished a transitional process that is led by the u.n. so the risk is, are we recreating another tangs that is just -- transition that is just a lot of work but no actual work would be implemented on the g

al-qaeda. they have allegiance to al-qaeda, but they don't have you know they don't have -- they think they're still their interest is still with al-qaeda. and i think once isis establish itself not only as a resilient group, but as an ideology, established ideology with idealogues and everything and also as a financial model i think it might gain a lot of ground in the future in north africa and africa in this general but also in different parts of the world. i think the process of isis' growth is still on, you know it's still growing. i don't think isis has been defeated as you hear in the headlines. isis has been contained in some parts of iraq and syria. they have been rolled back in areas where isis was on or had been on the offensive. so they were targeting kurds inside kurdish territory, and they were targeting shia inside shia territories. new they were rolled back to all sunnis -- now, they were rolled back to all sunni areas. its heartland tikrit, have not been threatened by any kind of internal or external challenges. and that won't happen. i don't think, you know, if you look at ira

you have attacks by al qaeda against whohouthi targets but they have always been political. >> violence continues. the president clashed with rebels along the city's airport. his own compound was bombed. there were further attacks on the air today. back in the capital, shock and rage at today's bombings. another layer has been added to yemen's agony. laura: for more, i'm joined by seth jones. thank you for being with us. seth: thank you. laura: what did you make of the islamic state being behind these attacks? seth: it is not clear how much the core group in iraq for example was involved in planning and the execution of this. how much of this was done out of inspiration for individuals in yemen. a lot of that is unclear. i think we will see over the next couple of days and weeks what actually is the involvement. laura: we know al qaeda is in yemen. will this be a turf war? seth: both al qaeda and is have conducted strikes against houthi targets. where al qaeda is generally drawn the line is not targeting mosques or public places. but they will target houthi headquarters. the assassinate

al qaeda. we thought al qaeda may claim responsibility for this. now you havey for the attack on a museum in tunisia. we'll be back with a live report in just a moment on this breaking news. >>> let's go straight to our correspondent, nick paton walsh. he's following those multiple attacks in yemen. we've been talking about how these attacks had all of the hallmarks of al qaeda and yet now you have isis -- this is the breaking news -- just claiming responsibility for this. >> reporter: we have to treat this claim of responsibility with extreme caution for two reasons. isis is not known to have a substantial presence in yemen. this kind of violence these series of blasts and then the follow-up explosion targeting those who rushed to assist that is potentially something you might associate with isis tactics in the past. the statement being released through a website, online vehicle which in the past has also been used to put similar statements out but simply because they say they did it doesn't necessarily mean that they did. so we have to be cautious about this.

you had the growth of al qaeda affiliated groups. the ansar al sharia. and indeed general heftar's campaign was to root out those groups. i think what you have is not the defeat of those groups but rather their dispersal and mutation. this is what we're seeing with isis. isis is really peeling away a lot of members of these older post revolutionary jihadist groups that had affiliation to al qaeda. you had influx of volunteers that went to iraq and syria to fight with isis. libyans that went, started returning last spring and last summer. that formed the nucleus of isis in the city of derna. you've had isis spread to all three of libya's major provinces. and of course they have conducted some very high profile attacks against corinthia hotel and most recently tragic killing of egyptian cops. again, let me move to some thoughts about policy option. one thing that makes this so confounding, we're faced with a terrorist problem in libya that is embedded in a very complex civil war. there's no government to work through. there are two competing factions and we face this in iraq and syria and yemen is what partner do we assist on the ground? how d

you have knows like al-qaeda who are waiting to expand in those areas where leadership has. destroyed in yemen. >> i thought it was complicated before, i'm not sure where we are now. we'll see. >> representatives have been holding the last. day of talks before tuesday's deadline. we go to our editor of foreign affairs and he said all sides do want compromise. >> what is clear really you're right negotiations are not going probably very well. irans are tough cookies every single question regarding the centerfuge regarding sanctions. they were not able to reach an agreement. let us not forget that all sides make extremely high stakes for positive results. it is not a question of if, but a question of when. all sides want compromise which would benefit iran. >> some voting irregularity he ies in nigeria's election. give us a report on the situation. >> well, the latest is that the electoral commission has the first one was where goodluck jonathan had 57% of the vote there. now the opposition people are a bit shocked by this. they said they thought this area would do well. it wo

it's going to be almost insurmountable task if isis and all the other terrorist groups al qaeda and what have you, if they do come together these non-state non-uniformed belligerents that do not respect borders and boundaries. they are able very easily to launch attacks all across the western civilization. i think that's when we have that untenable situation. we can push it back. buff we have to have courageous leaders that are wig to recognize it. >> you know, colonel when i hear the cia director saying it's worrisome. i think to myself that is such a tame word. worrisome? maybe i'm an alarmist, but i think this is far more than sort of worrisome. i see this as an immediate danger that we need to be making sure that we are addressing head on now the sing abdullah of jordan. we are not standing with those nations that recognize this threat. and they want to eradicate this threat. when you hear someone that is the director of the cia say this is worrisome. that's the language of defeat. that's not the language of victory. that's not the language of leadership. once again, we continue to have a pre

you have different political factions there and you have also al-qaeda which is trying to see the developments on the ground to be able to reposition itself in the areas it controlled in the past. >> given that the difficult territory that you're talking about there, one imagine that the saudi's would be very nervous about a ground offensive. >> very, because those that have tried this in the past suffered massive casualties. the egyptians in the 1960's, thousands of egyptian soldiers were killed by yemenese, and this is why the saudis say for the time being that the only option they have is to continue the airstrikes. there could be a different option, basically to level the playing ground for the different factions and allow sunni bribesmen to push do places where you have a concentration of thousands of sunni tribesmen willing to join the fight against the houthis but to see gcc fighters on the ground is going to be one of -- a very risky operation. >> all right we're going to be talking this for some days if not weeks to come. thanks for your assessment. >> the last round of talks to try t

have done their best to move on. wab: since you've been released. has al qaeda in the arabian peninsula ever tried to recruit you? they have found scarce jobs in a honey store in taiz. faruq is studying to be a lawyer. both have married, and are expecting their first children soon. the government of the united states hasn't apologized or compensated them for the years they spent imprisoned. nearly seven months after the hunger strike began, some 35 men continued to refuse food at guantanamo bay. in washington, the white house declined to speak with fault lines for this report. in yemen, families are still waiting for signs that their loved ones are coming home. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> pain killer addiction on the rise >> i loved the feeling of not being in pain >> deadly consequences >> the person i married was gone >> are we prescribing an epidemic? >> the last thing drug companies wanted anybody to think was that, this was a prescribing problem >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're fir

al qaeda. >> we have done a lot against al qaeda. we have pushed al qaeda back and prevent their attacks, but there are these offshoots, as you say. this is a phenomenon that we have to deal with and i do think over the next decade this will be a long, hard fight. >> i guess what i'm asking is didn't you give the american people and the president give the american people a false sense of confidence back in 2012 about our fight against islamic terrorists at a time perhaps not so coincidentally when the president was running for re-election. >> we said al qaeda was on the run. we said that al qaeda was really bloodied. it was not the same organization that it was at 9/11 as well as in the years after that. there was no sense that i think either i or the president or others gave to the american people that terrorism was going away. but we've made great progress against a lot of these groups that had plans in place to carry out attacks. >> you talked recently of the ideology, your word, that fuels isis. what is that ideology? >> it is a very twisted, perverted interpretation of a religion that they purport to represent but in no way do

you have iran eventually developing nuclear weapons. you have al qaedaisis, israel is encircled by a bunch of bad neighbors. they are allied with us. the palestinian authority has not taken advantage of negotiating with israel on a two state solution because the palestinians are split between the terrorist element in the more modern element. this turmoil exists, and this is where we have to stick behind our friends. this is what perplexes me, why prime minister netanyahu went to the united days, angered a lot of democrats, anger a lot of americans for going ahead with this speech to the congress on a legitimate issue that he cares about and israel cares about we should all care about, the nuclear proliferation and iran. it has not played well, which is the message is do not mix domestic politics with foreign policy. it will come back and bite you. host: that election is on tuesday. let's go back to what the senate foreign relations committee is dating with regard to our negotiations with iran. any deal undergoes fall congressional -- full congressional r

between the iranian shiite houthi rebels who have taken over and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula there in yemen. that's what's going on? >> right. then youd to the houthis. it's a complex situation. >> sounds like syria. how did this unravel so quickly? the situation in yemen. less than a year ago, president obama was suggesting that the counterterrorism strategy in yemen was a model, was working. >> you saw the uninsurgency grow through the houthis. that has allowed problems at the embassy. we deserted the staff. we had to withdraw our people from there. i think that has taken the lid off the al qaeda potential in the state and the emboldenment of them -- of some of them to claim association with isis. now you have the issue today of the same kind of thing we saw in iraq that started the civil war between sunni and shia there when the mosque was destroyed by al qaeda. you are going to see the same kind of things -- the potential for a civil war in yemen now that that's happened. >> i assume -- you know this region really well. as concerned as the u.s. is u.s. friends in the region whether the saudis, emirates they are more concerned tha

director brennan were you flat wrong about that. >> no, we look at al-qaeda and what has happened to al-qaeda as to their consider of al-qaeda in the area of afghanistan and pakistan, they have taken really big hits. >> respectfully, sir, when you said "this is the decade of al-qaeda's demise," i don't think most people thought you meant, well, in will be an offshoot called isis that spreads across the middle east. this phenomenon that isil appropriates is a new one, it is one that has grown up in the past two years. >> an offshoot of al-qaeda. >> we have pushed back al-qaeda and prevented attacks and there are offshoots. this is a phenomenon we have to deal with and over the next decade it is going to be a long and hard fight. >> behalf i am asking, did you give the american people and the president, give the american people a false sense of confidence back in 2012 about our fight against islamic extremists at a time when the president was running for re-election. >> we said al-qaeda was on the run and al-qaeda was really bloody and it was not the same organization it was at 9/11 and in the years after that. there what no sense that either i or the president or others gave

if you are a failed state, you have possibilities of al qaeda or someone like that. finding refuge and a power source as well. bill: it is a region that is as uncertain as the middle east. isil's acquisition for further territory. it is also important to demonstrate and expose the fact that they are not able to succeed in governing in those areas where they do control. kind of the eighth century playbook used by the leadership, delivering things the people want. people can find purpose and economic and political opportunities through other kinds of models. in iraq, it means appealing to the sunni arab community so they feel a sense of inclusion. and the iraqi government something they haven't felt in recent years. it's working with important partners whether it is jordan or tunisia, to develop that. charlie: another success story. bill: it is a grim terrain right now but it's a reason to invest in those kind of places and help them to succeed. charlie: the immediate threat of isis, whatever term we like to use, to stop their expansion into new territory. bill: and in

one like yemen where you have the al qaeda affiliates, it makes it even more dangerous. threat to saudi arabia and as the foreign minister says it's a threat to the region and the world. olivia: the headlines are truly incredible. we've heard the sunni president fled -- the base of the u.s. was overrun. all scary stuff. what is the u.s. role at this point? glen: my conversations today suggest that the americans on some level are supportive of the saudi role in hyemen as long as it leads to a political process in the country. there's been statements about a joint communication scell. this is a saudi operation. olivia: thank you so much for joining us. our twitter question of the day, should the u.s. get involved in yemen? ♪ tom: good morning everyone. a bit of fear in the market. a risk this morning. olivia: mystery surrounds the final moments of the germanwings jet that crashed tuesday. one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. he can be heard at trying to get back in by breaking down the door. the jet plunged from 38,000 feet. the crash killed all 150 people on b

yemen, the houthis, shia aligned enand then you have in the south and east and that's where you see interest in them from saudi arabia. you also have al qaedaa operating out of yemen for a significant amount of time. >> this is the map you put together, right in the. >> we can see that on the screen right now. the orange area is where the houthis are and blue area. now the houthis have been on the rampage, if you like since january. the president who came in to replace replace sa la basically accepted to stand down for immunity. and then just the turbulence carried on and national dialogue conference failed supported by the u.s. u.n. and the n d.c. was this idea that you put lots of groups all down together to talk about this. however, that hasn't worked. now what we see is the houthi movement is taking over as you rightly pointed out. the president has fleed aden and is a saudi arabian doesn't want the presence any more and why they have taken action. >> it's good for everybody to see that. thank you. we have a lot more to cover in the next hour we'll speak to an air marshall about what may have happened in the final moments aboard flight

you have iranian-backed shiite rebels overkun running the city. have you icircumstance al qaedais. so now there is a rare mortgages session in the u.n. on sunday to address the crisis and see if there is anything that can be done. 11 medical students believed to be in syria working for isis-controlled hospitals, a turkish official insists these students went to syria to try to fight isis but may have been brain washed into spriching sides. this comes amid growing concerns of westerners recruited to join isis. it includes seven from britain, a canadian and two from sudan. terrible sadness here at home. thousands of mourners gathered if brooklyn new york as an anguished father said good-bye to seven of his children. they were killed anne when an unattended hot plate malfunctioned and sparked and enormous house fire their mother and 15-year-old sister survived by breaking through 2nd floor windows and jumping. the father was at a religious retreat when that fire broke out. a turn in a starbucks story. barristas will no longer write the face race together. it was highly criticized.

you agree? >> it's really hard to understand where this game ends. we start 25 years ago, let's say, in afghanistan with al qaeda. you haveqaeda member to be indoctrinated. 25 years fast forward, you are in a media battle that's 90,000 tweets a day. remarkable. >> thanks very much. to find out more about the escalating batde inging battle against isis what you can do to help protect iraqi children impacted by the violence go to cnn.com/impact. >>> just ahead, a barrage of questions about hillary clinton's private e-mails when she was secretary of state. did she require her employees to do one thing while breaking the rules herself? the real question that needs to be asked is "what is it that we can do that is impactful?" what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, that's what i'd like to do. doug. you've been staring at that for awhile, huh? listen, td ameritrade has former floor traders to help walk you through that complex trade. so y

al jazeera. >> let's have a closer look now at the nusra front and what it's objectives are. as you already heard, it's al-qaeda's branch in syria having taken on the name in 2012 as part of the uprising against the assad regime. they have been fighting other groups, including isil and its leaders are reportedly considering cutting ties now with al-qaeda to form a purely syrian force. rebranding this group could secure more funding for them. the nusra front is under u.n. security council sanctions and is listed as a terrorist group by the united states. >> a specialist says nusra has been under a lot of pressure from the gulf so you wanties. >> i think nusra is moving into a phase of reconstituting itself. it may not be under the same name, or it could keep the same name or part of it, but i think now, there is a lot of pressure on it from a lot of of the gulf arab countries and beyond this to become what is called the moderate opposition that's going to fight both daish and the regime. now without getting the upper hand, meaning getting the money and the funds and the military hardware and support from the state

well, when you have the houthis claim that go they are moving against aden, because aden is working with al qaedamen or the arabian peninsula and you have aden claim that go they are the major defense against al qaeda, and they have, in fact, in terms of the yemen government, they have cooperated very closely with us in combating al qaeda in yemen. but this kind of unrest opens up a field of conflict, competition, a proxy war iran, saudi arabia, not a shooting war between the two but with each pledging to do a great deal to support certain elements in yemen. >> do you think that this will draw iran in to more active engagement in yemen? >> it's in there rhetorically today. are they doing as much -- have they been doing as much as the saudis say they have in terms of material support. >> 180-tons of weapons allegedly. >> yeah. that's the assertion. i don't know the facts on that. but they sterling certainly have given the moral support and the saudis are in a picklely mood about the iranians and suspicious about anything that might become further iranian involvement and control in what they would

and now you not only have the al qaeda versus hootie dynamic, you have embolden sunnis that are claimingo stir that stew into something that's going to be continuingly troubling for many months to come. it's a dynamic without a government there. you compare it to to nearia with emerging great government with yemen which is a failing and increasingly bad government and you've got the ying and the yang of that part of the world. >> you look at isis strongholds on the map you've got tunisia, this attack in tunisia, then libya, egypt, and across the red sea to yemen so you put all of that together, and james reese earlier said what they are doing in part is vying for who can win propaganda. they are as you said against al qaeda, against the hutis. do you have fear that any of these groups might merge as isis supposedly has done with boko har haram? >> i see it differently. i don't think we can color the map of tunisia saying it's an isis stronghold. this is the same kind of attack we saw in paris where it's a group of -- a small group of individuals trying to impose their will on a nation th

you have iraq and syria now pushing into close to lebanon and perhaps to jordan. that is very, very dangerous. isis is basically a sister movement of al qaedahave radical shiites radical sunnis you have hamas and you have in africa subsaharan africa and north africa -- >> radical islam. >> the islamist terrorist groups. they are fighting amongst themselves but they agree once they destroy, vanquish their muslim moderates who are there who don't share their views they behead them and do horrible things to them. >> boys here wipe israel off the map. >> for all of them you are -- the radical shiites are back by iran. the radical sunnis have various backers and so on. these people fight amonkg themselves. one thing we agree on it will be in islam too. it will be a world dominated by the unforgiven greed their violent ideology which rejects human rights puts women as chat elled all minorities are sub jew daylighted or eliminated. it is a terrible terrible world view with these competing sects who want to force it on humanity. those of humanity will be left alive a good portion will be destroyed. this is the danger you have 21st century weapons w

are committed fighters and as you said, the numbers are overwhelming for a small country, the number of people that have gone and volunteer to fight for isis and al qaedahat are the chances that this is no link to isis? that this was, if you want to call it a rag tag group of fighters coming together to commit a terrorist attack? >> well, isis is only one of the usual suspects, i'll call them. you could have ansar al sharia, al qaeda, very active but to the west. it could be oany of the islamic groups. islamic extremists they called them, haven't identified the group yet. they will. it's a matter of time. i think we need to give the tunisians the time to find out who did this. >> absolutely. colonel, stay with us. let's bring in cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. i know this is your area of expertise. the colonel and i have been talking about the fact, he said it's surprising they haven't found links to any group. the one guy has been monitored and flagged. what are you hearing now? >> in the last few minutes, there's been a claim in a 3 minute audiotape put out on twitter. cnn are working to confirm this, but a intelligence group found this posti

you also have terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis who are carrying out attacks, trying to disrupt as well as the huthi rebels. now you have the gulf coalition countries. and these involve saudi arabia, and i'm going to put up this map here. all of them participating in this to try to slow down the advance of those rebels. this is why it matters to the united states very briefly. counterterrorism operations as well as the geography we highlighted and to pry to prevent iran from getting another foothold in another arab country, so to speak, as well as from preventing it from becoming a completely isis state. >> you mentioneded constraining iran. you mentioned they have a foothold in tikrit. what is iran's angle in all of this? >> so we'll bring up a map of iraq. in tikrit you have isis which has controlled the northwestern part of iraq for several months now. ful they are now coming under attack by both the u.s. coalition, the international coalition and u.s. air strikes, but on the ground the troops that are actually fighting on the ground are shia militias backed by iran as well a

al qaeda? >> i mean that's going to be the question as far as what's going to happen. are you going to haveof al qaeda joining the islamic state? because they'll realize that now a man zawahiri the leader of al qaeda has lost control and credibility in the jihadist word. so they could either go in the strongest or be on their way. but the problem is if those franchises stay with aq they will try as much as possible as we've seen in paris to get very spectacular attacks to put themselves in the eye of the media and in the eye of the jihadist world as still relevant. so it's like a wounded beast -- if you will. and i'm specifically concerned about potential attacks especially from al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which is the most sophisticated aq franchise. >> yeah. when you say you're most worried before al qaeda, in what area in what part of the world? just generally? >> olivier, you still with us? >> no, i mean mostly in the west and also targeting western expats possibly in morocco, algeria, tunisia, but also in yem be and saudi area. and also remember that al qaeda is as far as in hist

it does not look good from the united states perspective because you have that backdrop of a very strong presence of al qaeda and isis now. that's going to be a major cause of concern for u.s. officials who have been engaged in counterterrorism operations in yemen for close to a decade now. >> isis is a type of rebel group that has turf that has land which it says will restore a caliphate. that makes it different than stateless terror groups. now we're seeing of course some of the hallmarks of al qaeda style groups that are doing these attacks or loosely affiliated. boca haram stated it is pledging its allegiance to al baghdadi. what does that even mean? these other groups can work in concert with isis. >> that's exactly what has emerged. we're seeing al qaeda becoming less relevant. still very potent. what has emerged is isis in places like libya, yemen, nigeria. this doesn't necessarily mean isis and the so-called caliphate that al baghdadi runs of iraq and syria has any operational control over these places. but the fact that isis is now capable of inspiring groups in these countries to become even more e

>> well there is now a 14-year history of the tenacity of al-qaeda and its offshoots and their intent to attack our country. and i think you haveo take that into account about whether it makes sense to put a sunset on that one. this is a new campaign a new group, and so as i said in my statement, i -- i -- i respect the desire to have a sunset clause that doesn't derive from any characteristic of the campaign that i know of yet, that would predict that it will wrap-up within three years but i think we have history in the case of al-qaeda that it has -- it has purdued, it has lasted for a lock period of time, and i think that -- >> mr. secretary if this is a new -- >> -- makes sense. >> -- if this is a new campaign i don't understand how you can use a 2001 foundation to justify the use of force. so it's a new complain. and yet we still can use a 2001 authorization that was specific against the attack on our country. >> well, maybe another way of getting at your question senator is the president has indicated a desire and willingness to revisit the 2001 -- >> and we're trying to help that along. >> aumf which i also think it make

al jazeera. >> let's have a closer look now at the nusra front and what it's objectives are. as you already heard, it's al-qaeda's branch in syria having taken on the name in 2012 as part of the jump rising against the assad regime. they have been fighting other groups including isil and its leaders are reportedly considering cutting ties now with al-qaeda to form a purely syrian force. rebranding this group could secure more funding for them. the nusra front is under u.n. security council sanctions and is lifted listed as a terrorist group by the united states. we can talk to a specialist on islamic studies at the american university of beirut. thank you for joining us. what difference will it make to nusra front the loss of the leader? >> first of all he's the mostly senior military commander but i think this kind of liquidation comes first in a wave of the government successes to i think more importantly in the beginning of the wave of the division among the nusra leadership itself, as you might know the leadership, most of it is now seems to be ready to mitt from al-qaeda, except a few. one of them is the hea

you are worst problems now than a few years ago. do they recognize that? >> i don't think we have worse problems now except with regard to al qaeda. that is i think the flaw in the ointment here. you guys can bring up climate change and all of this stuff. the reality is bin laden was killed by this president. he killed bin laden. i think the american people responded. the second thing is al qaeda has not been able to organize another attack against the united states or al qaeda would not be able to retaliate after bin laden's death. we have more spread of terrorism. that's true. that is absolutely right. that's your point that we have more of these groups like isis, for example, right now. >> which is an offshoot of al qaeda. >> you can say that this terrorist thought process has mu mu -- >> the documents actually contradict what you're saying. that's the problem that al qaeda has far reaching influence now than it did before. >> their ideology. >> just go into the terrorist the thesaurus. we are at war with terror. it's a very naive national security perspective to say this offshoot is not in business anymore. >> if you want to ha

and isis is basically a sister movement of al qaeda. you haveezbollah and radical shiites fighting radical sunnis. you have hamas. and you have in africa sub saharan africa and in northern africa radical islam. >> on the rise. >> islamist terrorist groups. they're all fighting among themselves. but they all agree once they destroy vanquish their muslim moderates who are there who don't share their views and they behead them and do horrible things to them and then they have to get to israel, which is the western country in the region. >> always hear wipe israel off the map. >> always. but for all of them you're the great satan. the radical shiites are backed by iran. the radical sunnis have various backers and so on. and these peopleight among themselves who will be the king of the hill. one thing they will agree on >>> puts women as chattel. all minorities are eliminated. it is area tibl, terrible world view with these competing sects who want to enforce it on the rest of humanity. those of humanity that is left alive. you have 21 century weapon

and isis is basically a sister movement of al qaeda. you haveand radical shiites fighting radical sunnis. you have hamas. and you have in africa sub saharan africa and in northern africa radical islam. >> on the rise. >> islamist terrorist groups. they're all fighting among themselves. but they all agree once they destroy, vanquish their muslim moderates who are there who don't share their views and they behead them and do horrible things to them and then they have to get to israel, which is the western country in the region. >> always hear wipe israel off the map. >> always. but for all of them you're the great satan. the radical shiites are backed by iran. the radical sunnis have various backers and so on. and these people fight among themselves who will be the king of the hill. one thing they will agree on it's going to be an islamist hill. and it's going to be a world dominated by their unforgiving creed, their violent ideology which rejects human rights, rejects -- puts women as chattel. all minorities subjugated. all minorities are elimina

allow speech about al qaeda or the nazi party because it offers a license plate -- >> they don't have to get in the business of selling space on their license plates to begin with. if you don't want to have the al qaeda license plate, don't get into the license of allowing people buy their -- the space to put on whatever they want to say. >> mr. chiefity that would be an answer to all the government speech cases. uma the confident didn't save if you don't want to accept the monument, don't allow monuments. so the government allowed them to select the messages its wants to promulgate and is allowed to supreme -- >> might but because they've done that since the time of the pyramids or whatever. but they haven't had license plate messages since time immemorial. so maybe that's why they shouldn't be considered just like the monuments. >> mr. chief justice, don't mean to suggest they're just like the monuments, but it's still a fixed medium and a tangible message is being displayed to a captive audience as the court recognized in those situations the government is entitled to select the messages it wishes to promulgate and are -- >> i'd rather have the plans plates than the

have al-qaeda. we have the tribesmen that are and you have the separatists in the south. all of these are you know, as the tribes of yemen. some reports talk about 20,000 pieces of arms in the country. all of that combined create a mow mosaic of a violent place and total destruction of the country unless the sober wiser minds would prevail and push everyone back to some sort of a dialogue to reach an inclusion to the questions of yemen. >> all right senior political analyst, thank you for that. >>> saudi arabia's king said strikes on houthi rebels in yemen will not stop until the country is safe and stable. they would make the comments at the acre league summit. leaders across the arab world has descended against the backdrop. multiple conflict notice region. they described the houthies as a grave set of security across the arab region. >> these houthi militias supported by foreign forces were able to subvert the government and take control of the state and institution turning a blind eye to the calls of the leaders of the region. >> yemen's president abd rabbuh mansur ha