Centuries because Strong Financial partnerships are best cultivated for the years to come giving your company the resources and stability to thrive. Mufg. We build relationships that build the world. And now bbc world news america. This is bbc world news america. Reporting from washington. Taking the fight back to Islamic State in iraq. The bbc is with fighters as they battle a militant group. A tornado goes through the Mexican Border town of ciudad acuna. A number of people reportedly killed. And someone whos been to every country in the world. Welcome to our viewers on Public Television in america and also around the globe. A few choice words from the American Defense secretary have touched a nerve among iraqi leadership and it comes at a difficult time. He questioned it will of the military groups after it fell to the militant state. More on that in a moment. But first the bbc World Affairs editor has been out with the militia supporting the army in the Anbar Province. Anbar province, vast, empty basically natural islamic territory for Islamic State. Its been a battleground for years. The americans built the fortifications when they were here. Now, as then the enemys weapon of choice is the roadside bomb. We reached the area as the government was rerming the last few positions of the town. Were with a socalled mobilization unit, a many militiaa unit mostly exposed of muslims and run by a dapper man in a uniform of his own devising. The militia are the only troops who seem able to resist Islamic States ferocity. But it is sunni muslim. Is there a danger theyll fight a sectarian war here . I carry the flag of iraq because i dont just represent shiah or sunni. I represent the whole of iraq. This is what they call the front line in the sense that its the closest that the iraqi forces get to the last remaining islamic positions just on the other side of that ridge there. Its mostly the fire is outgoing. There arent that many Islamic State fighters left but theyve just told us that we have to get out in case all the fire and excitement here attracts incoming mortar fire. And Islamic States by no means finished in Anbar Province. Another bbc team traveling with the iraqi army came under fire from i. S. And a battle startled. Its one of the characteristics of fighting a war in anbar that you scarcely ever get a look at your enemy. Reporter its a matter of life and death for the Iraqi Government to drive Islamic State out of anbar. The government believes it can be done and by the end of the year. Western diplomats here are inclined to agree. But it will be an immense task. Bbc news, Anbar Province. Anchor and before heading out on patrol, john simpson sat down with the p. M. They discussed comments by the American Defense secretary ashton warlt away carter who said that iraqi troops lacked the will to hold the city. It makes my heart bleed because we lost but i can assure you we can bring it back soon. You say soon, what are we talking about, months . No, no, im talking about days now. Days . Yeah. Anchor iraqs p. M. Talking to john simpson. A short time ago i spoke to the man from the washington policy. Do you think iraq troops can get the city back within days . Im skeptical that within days. With the right support from other Coalition Countries i think they can retake it just like they took that create. Anchor the u. S. Defense secretary said that iraqi forces lacked the will to fight. Was he speaking the truth . Secretary carter has access to highly classified information we dont and im sure hes frustrated because ive seen this in the past. Nonetheless those forces in a maddie held out for a year against i sills. We need to find out what changed. This isnt mosul. Something happened. Its involved with the logistics, some of the training, air support and possibly other things which we, the United States allies of iraq have some responsibility for. Weve had training teams with the iraqi forces since last june. Anchor do you think its time to rethink what its going to take to make pro progress in Anbar Province . In an emergency id take troops from anywhere but not all the shiah volunteers and there are hundreds of thousands of them are from these several iranian backed militias that were attacking us back a decade ago. Many of them are volunteers from a year ago. We worked with them in that create and we could work with them again. Lets just see who shows up. If theyre under iraqi army control i think we can and will work with them. The administration is very reluctant to send Ground Troops to iraq. Should that be on the table . First of all, thats a military decision and the president keeps saying the military isnt making this request. My request eto the president would be why dont you ask them why theyre not making this request . Theyre calling in air strikes and use different rules of engagement. Surely iraq and asills is not less important than afghanistan. This has been going on since the end of last summer. Sit work something it certainly isnt working in ramadi. Again, the question is, the president has said that destroying isis is a national priority. If its a national priority, what are we willing to do, what risks are we willing to take and possibly willing to bear, appropriate on memorial day, to do that . Thats something he has to explain to us. If not if this is something the iraqis have to fight, thats a different policy. Anchor thank you for joining us. Across the border from iraq in syria, that countrys air force has been carrying out air strikes in and around pal maya the ancient city now controlled by the Islamic State. Isis killed at least 217 people, including children. Its home to 50,000 people and is the sight of the worlds most extensive and best preserved roman ruins. The outgoing u. N. Under secretary general of humanitarian affirms. We caught up with her before she leaves the job to reflect on our greatest frustrations and the challenges the world boldfaces. The rose garden of the United Nations, a haven of tranquility. It feels like a long way from the conflicts in the middle east and especially syria but thats the war thats dominated valeries five years as the u. N. Humanitarian chief and the conflicts thats frustrated her most. What you have are humanitarian issues which grow and grow having almost an expectation that mu humanitarian workers and organizations will somehow fill that yawning gap, which is where a solution should be. Why is it that the u. N. Has been so unable to actually alleviate so much of the humanitarian suffering in syria . I dont actually agree with that. I think weve done a tremendous amount to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria, but i do think that the way humanitarians work has been politicized and syria is probably the most obvious example, but who gets what, where the needs whether or not somebody lives in an area controlled by government or whether or not somebody lives in an area controlled by a terrorist organization or an armed group where that is almost used as an excuse for saying that they should not receive aid. One of the Core Principles of humanitarian aid, and it has to stay as a core principle is that its about people in need. Its not about who you support, not about your religion or ethnic group or where you end up and these conflict situations are very, very come flex complex in terms of the reality on the ground and if you follow the things that much frustrated me the most in my time in the job we seem to be in the midst of a global geo political superstorm. Trouble in the middle east africa, ukraine. Do you think the United Nations have been overwhelmed . I do think that we face a major challenge in our world in terms of Global Leadership because i think that we live in a highly politicized environment. In many ways, i think people think it was more straightforward when you had a kind of world when you had two axes powers. You had the United States and you had the soviet union and now its changed and Different Countries have power for a whole range of Different Reasons now. We are also seeing more and more countries that are really wanting to establish their authority and their sovereignty. Some of that is very positive but im also seeing the negative side of that when you have an arrogance of some leaders, when you have leaders that care nothing, absolutely nothing for their people and youre using sovereignty and authority to say that as a country other countries should not intervene have absolutely no role. How we deal with this and how we get greater accountability i think is going to be one of the major challenges going forward. Anchor another humanitarian crisis is the plight of mike rants in asia. Close to 140 graves have been found on a border with thailand. Most are in a jungle area in the northern malaysian place. They kept mike rants in camps while demanding a ransom from family members back home. Malaysias Prime Minister said the criminals will be tracked down. I also took the option to brief the latest challenge that we have which is the border people. We believe it is also an International Problem which requires an international solution. Therefore, anything japan can do to help us alleviate this problem will certainly be very much welcome. Malaysias Prime Minister speaking there. In other news, at least seven soldiers have been killed in a shootout inside a military base. The motive behind the shooting is unclear but Officials Say this was not a terrorist attack. Officials are concerned that the conservative figure duda has won the political election. A right wing member of the European Parliament is shown to be ahead in the voting. Heavy losses in regional and local elections in spain. The Peoples Party lost its majority in many of its stronghold including the capital, madrid. Parliamentary poles are later this year. Authorities say at least 13 have been killed by a tornado that hit the Mexican Border city of ciudad acuna. The tornado touched down in the early hours of monday morning. Cars smashed by the force of the tornado. Some thrown against buildings. According to local reports as many as 1,500 houses have been damaged but its expected that the death toll will rise. Across the border, at least three have died and hundreds of homentsdz have been destroyed in flash flooding across the southern u. S. The governor of texas has declared a state of disaster in 24 counties. Some areas saw 10 inches in the past day. We have more. Oh, my god, oh, my god. Reporter throughout texas and oklahoma, more than 10 inches of rain fell, leading to devastating flooding. Stay back reporter outside san antonio, the water washed this jet stream right down the river. Mercifully the driver was able to crowell crawl out of the window of the vehicle before it went other. Others went so lucky. A High School Student was killed when her carp was swept away. Not far away, two were refreshinged by this blackhawk helicopter close to the blanco river, which had risen six feet in an how were. I kept calling, are you ok . Hes like i dont know if im going to make it. Reporter in northeast oklahoma, a firefighter captain, jason farley, host lo his life during a rescue mission. We suspect he drowned. Got caught in the storm drain. Reporters back in texas outside houston, 10,000 people were driven from their homes with winds of 100 Miles Per Hour devastating this apartment block. Forecasters say theres more bad weather to come. Youre watching bbc world news america. Still to come, waiting for hours to fill up. How drivers in nigeria have been facing fuel shortages and why the end may be near. Anchor in the a minutes silence to remember the more than 8,000 people who died in the two earthquakes. The government says schools will restart on june 15 but many diddings buildings have been destroyed. As these two brothers explained there isnt a lot for them to do. My name is and i am 15 years old. I was studying at the time of the earthquake and my brother was watching tv. At first the electricity cut out and then the roof started shaking and i crouched underneath the bed. My mother was working in a tailors shop opposite our house and she ran out onto the roof. Then i saw my mom getting buried under the rubble of the house. I was very scared. I was watching tv and then the earthquake came and then out i went out of the room to look for open space. I saw a cloud of dust coming from the rubble. The earthquake took a long time to stop and i was very squared scared. We would usually be in school all day learning but our schools have closed down. Its dangerous to go out and about, as the houses could fall at any time. This is our school. I was in 10th grade. The first earthquake brought the entire school down. Not a single building is left standing. So we wont be able to study here again. People say it will take at least two years to reconstruct the entire school. We dont know what we will do until then. A few teachers told me we will start having classes in tents. Anchor the government of nigeria has struck a deal with fuel companies which would end a crippling energy sthorge. It was Start Technology affect nearly all areas of africas largest economy. From banks to federal agencies. Theyll clean up the notoriously corrupt fuel sector. A report. These are the fuel queues in lag lagos and they go on for kilometers. For the past few weeks this has been the scene and fuel stations have shut down completely. Now theres a small supply at a fuel station down the road here and all of these people are hoping to get some. By the look of it they havent got a chance at the back of this long line. Theres no way [indiscernible]. Its the worst youve seen it . Yeah, yeah, this one is worst. 2 30 a. M. Ive been here. Theres now some good news for all the people lining up for fuel. Were hearing that the government has reached an agreement with the fuel marketers and the marketers have agreed to start distributing the fuel across the country. We dont know how much the government agreed to pay them but they were asking for about a billion dollars in arrears. Many people view this whole industry as a big scam but the government has agreed to pay up. I think the lines around here are likely to stay for at least the next day or two and people are still busy buying at hugely inflated prices from people selling out of dairy cans beside the road. This whole fuel shortage was threatening to bring the country to its knees. The mobile phone Companies Said they couldnt continue to operate and even the banks were shutting down because they couldnt run their generators. The big question is when the new government comes in this friday lit be able to clean up this notorious fuel sector and give they jeernls the feeling that for once theyre not going to have to go through this agony of lining up for fuel and being rippled off by the billions. Anchor proud of your air miles . You may have met your match. Hes the only american to have visited every country in the world. Thats more than 190 nations. Hes written a book called around the world in 50 years exfments and spoke to the bbc about his extensive travels. My philosophy in travel is usually the worse the things happen the better the story is going to be. I have gone to every country in the world and have written a book on it called around the world in 50 years. My adventure to every country on earth. My parents were very poor and we never traveled at all when i was a kid. At the age of 6 i started collecting stamps and i wanted a stamp from every country in the world and i was just fascinated by these little bits of colored paper. They had vicunas and alpacas and mountains and strangelooking people and i thought it would be really cool to maybe actually get out there and see all these people. Thats probably what inspired it way back. The first trip, the one i took in 1965 and 1966 was to drive around the world. The way we did that, we drove closer to the equator and it took us 19 minutes then we set that record. Months then we set that record. Somewhere along the way the idea crept in why not go to every country . I was up to about 90 then 19. The ecointorial table i thought why not . Ill see if i can go to every country in the world. People mostly thought it was crazy. They thought there were Better Things to do in life and mostly people thought it was impossible because there were too many problems. Too many civil wars, big wars, revolutions. I think its fair to call it an obsession. You could call it a dedication. A mission. I purchased a temporary ticket to go to scotland when i thought it was going to be wrong the country. I would actually like that. My plan would be to go there the day it became independent and then i would know that i was the only person in the world who had been to every country. If i said see a good psychiatrist see a good Life Insurance agency. Make out a pretty good will. Read all the books and see all the movies you want because you may never get another chance and once you get on the road, enjoy it as much as you can. Anchor from globe trotting to paying tribute here in the United States. Its memorial day and americans are honoring fallen servicemen and women across the country. President obama was at Arlington National cemetery and laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. In a later speech, he noted this was the first memorial day in 14 years without u. S. Forces being involved in a major ground war. Well, that brings todays forecast to a close. You can find much more on all the days news at our website. To reach me and most of the bbc team go to twitter. Thanks for watching on this memorial day holiday and please tune in tomorrow. Make sense of International News at bbc. Com news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. Newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good. Kovler foundation and mufg. Its a global truth, we can do more when we work together. At mufg, our banking relationships span cultures and support almost every industry across the globe. Because success takes partnership and only through discipline and trust can we create something greater than ourselves. Mufg, we build relationships that build the world. Bbc world news was presented by k captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff the fight for iraq. Government forces and militias strive to beat back Islamic State fighters good evening on this memorial day. Im judy woodruff. Gwen ifill is away. Also ahead whats next for rules governing u. S. Surveillance after the senate fails to extend key provisions. Plus, the week ahead in politics with amy walter and tamara keith. And. horn playing taps woodruff we mark this holiday with several perspectives on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and the impact on loved ones left on the homefront
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