Account of the toll of war and disease inside yemen. imitating missile boom. Narrator two gripping stories on this special edition of frontline. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Additional support is provided by the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The heisingsimons foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Major support for frontline and for inside yemen was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting, with Additional Support from the henry luce foundation. Corporate support is provided by oooh us lives here. Where we can be surprised by others. And ourselves. The y, for a better us. radio chatter speaking Foreign Language distant rapid gunfire distant gunfire continues gunfire speaking Foreign Language loud gunshot gunshots, debris falling glass crunching distant rapid gunfire glass crunching clicking tongue distant shouting distant rapid gunfire gunshot rapid gunfire loud explosion, debris falling man shouting rapid gunfire man gasping radio chatter gasping 13 years after the u. S. Military invasion, the country still faces profound challenges, none more dire than the threat posed by the Islamic State. radio chatter the capture of mosul in june 2014 shocked the world and became a symbol of the emerging threat of the socalled Islamic State group. There are over a million civilians in mosul, isis is not letting them leave and using them as human shields. Theyre describing a life of torture under the Islamic States brutal rule. The iraqi Prime Minister has announced just moments ago the offensive to take back mosul is now underway. Isis recognizes that there is a big battle ahead for mosul, iraqs second largest city. This is the place where is proclaimed its caliphate. Here it was born, and here Iraqi Forces Say it will die. speaking Foreign Language gunshots men shouting distant rapid gunfire gunshots gunshots explosions, gunfire distant gunfire distant explosion gunfire, explosion rapid gunfire rapid gunfire rapid gunfire gunfire anmar loud explosion rapid gunfire baby crying hissing, explosion dog barking child on radio hussein gunshot distant gunfire radio chatter anmar distant gunfire men shouting gunshots men shouting gunshots hussein men shouting water bubbling hello . water bubbling bubbling indistinct chatter laughter jamal distant gunfire distant rapid gunfire jamal radio chatter distant rapid gunfire distant rapid gunfire loud rapid gunfire loud gunfire continues hussein distant gunfire laughter nearby gunshot chuckles dance music playing music continues distant rapid gunfire metal clanging jamal men shouting on phone rapid gunfire on phone sheep bleating men shouting anmar din of the crowd din of the crowd radio chatter men talking indistinct chatter indistinct chatter anmar indistinct chatter door thudding, clanging gunshot distant explosions loud gunshot distant rapid gunfire explosion distant gunfire radio chatter weeping weeping continues men talking, distant gunshot hussein distant gunshots sniffles indistinct chatter lighter clicks aircraft flying overhead bullets clanging man shouting in the distance anmar men chatting distant gunfire man shouting distant gunfire gunfire continues explosion explosion water bubbling anmar faint explosion, gunfire explosion anmar explosions rapid gunshots rapid gunfire distant gunshots distant gunshots distant rapid gunfire distant rapid gunfire loud gunshot distant gunfire hussein meowing jamal distant gunshots rapid gunfire rapid gunfire rapid gunfire echoes distant, inaudible voices hussein explosions gunfire gunshot men cheering singing, clapping crickets chirping jamal narrator up next, correspondent martin smith was one of the few journalists allowed into yemen. You were standing right here. Narrator his first hand reflections on the rarely seen consequences of the countrys devastating war. They were there working in spite of the fact that they hadnt been paid. If i will not work, then they will die. And maybe tomorrow i will be sick and nobody will see me, because of no salary. Narrator inside yemen begins right now. Smith when we were in yemen in may of 2017, we were the only foreign journalists that were able to get permission to enter the country. We wanted to come in and see the consequences of twoplus years of war and airstrikes by a saudiled coalition. You have the regions wealthiest country bombing the regions poorest. And people are not seeing whats going on. Were talking thousands of civilian dead. imitates jet streaking boom. imitates jet streaking music playing on radio smith the current war began when the houthis, a rebel group from northern yemen, took the capital in 2014. car horn continuously honking months later, the saudis responded with a massive air campaign. And theres a lot of blame to go around here. The houthis have blocked aid shipments. Theyve detained and even tortured their opponents, and theyve prevented human rights organizations from doing their work. But nothing has really caused as much death and destruction as the saudi bombs. We went to the site of a funeral bombing. It had taken place late last year. And the saudis say they mistook it for a gathering of houthi officials. You were standing right here . man speaking arabic he was the last. Smith it was whats called a double tap. As people ran back inside to save lives, a second missile hit. About 150 people died there. 400 to 500 people were injured. This man says he lost 26 members of his family. The saudis say this was a mistake. That they didnt intend to bomb a funeral. Smith we were taken to other bombing sites by our houthi minders, but the fact is you can see the war in yemen wherever you go. Its just not always immediately evident. We were in one supermarket in the capital, sanaa, and it was a fairly wellstocked supermarket. It looked like a lot of supermarkets in the u. S. We then noticed that people were paying not with cash, but with coupons. Smith we ran into people who were working and hadnt been paid in many, many months. The whole Banking System had pretty much collapsed, so the cash just wasnt there. Thats just a small example of how you see the war affecting peoples daily lives everywhere you go. Its not just the jets you hear overhead or the buildings that are bombed or the airport thats demolished. Its the knockon effects of the war on infrastructure. When we came into town, what struck me right away was the amount of garbage on the streets. The garbage workers hadnt been paid in eight months. The rains came, washing through the garbage. Bacteria carried into the water supply. People drinking bad water. And they were hit by a cholera epidemic. chattering cholera simply dehydrates you quickly, so that anything you ingest any water you drink or food you eat just completely passes through your system and you get no nutrients out of it. woman speaking arabic woman speaking english smith the World Health Organization is saying that they expect more than 700,000 cases of cholera, and that 2,100 people have died. Most of those are children. The hospital we visited, they were already beyond capacity. The nurses and doctors were suffering from a lack of medicines and equipment. And they were there working in spite of the fact that they hadnt been paid. woman speaking english smith people often ask why the saudis are bombing yemen. Its a question for the saudis. Theyll tell you that the houthis are a proxy of their archrival, iran. And the houthis are getting some iranian support and training, but the extent is unclear. And certainly they lack the firepower of the saudis. Parts of the country have been isolated because of bomb strikes on bridges. People on the ground in yemen are suffering. Theyre caught in the crossfire of this war. In hajjah, we went to a hospital, and i met a nurse there who showed me pictures shed taken a day or two before of a young boy who came in severely malnourished, and died. woman speaking arabic baby crying smith she then was called away to go take care of a new severe malnutrition patient. A mother came in with her child. It was a little girl named aaleen, a sevenmonthold baby. crying smith there were always malnutrition cases in yemen, but the nurse told us that the number of cases had more than doubled since the war. Then maybe an hour later, another mother came in with her daughter. Ruqayyah, her name was, was a fiveyearold girl. Ruqayyah had come from an idp, an internally displaced persons camp that was quite a ways away, up near the saudi border. Traveled several hours because the hospital up near her had been bombed. woman speaking arabic crying smith and who do you blame for the war . Smith we had to leave the hospital before i knew what the fate of those two girls was going to be. I dont know what happened to them. What i do know is that Health Workers in yemen say that every ten minutes, a child dies of preventable causes. car horns honking americans may not be aware of american involvement in the war in yemen, but yemenis, in sanaa and in northern yemen, certainly know where the weapons are coming from. Just a few days after we arrived, there was a huge rally in the middle of sanaa called the say no to american terrorism rally. man speaking arabic over loudspeaker smith thousands gathered to protest the arrival of President Trump in riyadh, where he announced his intention to approve a 110 billion arms package to the saudis. We respect the United States of america, and we hold respect in our hearts. But we came here in order to express our outrage against the United States policy. chanting in arabic it was pretty evident that we were an american tv crew, but absolutely no hostility was directed at us. There was only a sense that our government was to blame and ordinary yemenis want the world to be aware of whats going on. Theres this grievance thats eating away at vladimir putin. The fbi detected more attempts to hack. Russian hackers are behind those attacks. America in the crosshairs. This is the first time they have gone out and weaponized that information. Hes going to employ whatever means he can to undermine the United States. In a two night special investigation, the epic inside story of putins revenge. Go to pbs. Org frontline for an interview with mosul filmmaker, olivier sarbil. Then, listen to the frontline dispatch, our new podcast series. Were going to be tackling the toughest subjects. I was caught in a car bomb in mosul. The thought of marriage at fourteen. Subscribe now at pbs. Org frontline. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Additional support is provided by the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The heisingsimons foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Major support for frontline and for inside yemen was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting, with Additional Support from the henry luce foundation. Corporate support is provided by oooh us lives here. Where we can find common ground, big enough to dance on. The y, for a better us. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlinemosul is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org or call 1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. Youre watching pbs birds chirping bob poole im in zimbabwe. I had to leave mozambique when the political situation around Gorongosa National park got so intense and im just chomping at the bit, as they say, to get back in there. Ive been documenting the parks comeback. And weve been on such a roll. I cant wait to see this guy. How exciting. Wheres the plate . The lion team just collared the first lion ever in gorongosa. We went from 200 lions to singledigit population. Theres a sense that lions should have recovered at a faster pace. Poole imagine how this lion is going to lead us to others