roosevelt. that boosts the u.s. fire power off the coast of yemen. that vital gulf up to the red sea key to u.s. interests, energy in particular. gas and oil transporting through that area. this is most about the arms blockade. the united nations security council resolution opposing that in yemen. and the reports that as many asinine iranian ships in the area bringing toward the houthi of the conflict inside yemen against the western backed president hadi and other groups. iran quite clear it is defiant and that runs the risk of the u.s. ships feel the need to stop them. that could be a moment of conflict. this is what is troubling, john we see so much fire power amassing with so many conflicting interests.
forced him to hand over power to his brother raul in 2006. prospects for peace is in syria is growing dimmer, as violence rage on. this video shows the government shelling of a neighborhood in eastern syria. but the main western backed opposition group is on the brink of collapse and may not attend peace talks scheduled to take place in switzerland later this month. well, the u.s. is helping to beef up security in russia ahead of the olympic games next month. the move comes after a series of troubling incidents not far from sochi where the olympics are going to be held. here s abc s brian ross. reporter: with american athletes in the final stages of preparation for next month s winter games, there was growing concerns by u.s. officials that terrorists will make good on their threats to attack the olympics in the russian city of sochi. i think all of the ingredients are there, quite honestly. reporter: the latest incident came a few hours drive from sochi.
from washington tonight. turkey is close to putting american made missiles on its border with syria. that s according to the head of the nato military alliance. he he expects the turks to formally request the patriot air to surface missiles in the coming days any deployment would be for defensive purposes. turkey shares longest border with syria and former allies have recently exchanged rocket fire. meanwhile syrian rebel firefighters claim they seized a military base on 00 outskirts of capital city of damascus and group of islamist within the rebel ranks claims that it has rejected the new western-backed session group a potential major set back in the effort to topple the syrian president bashar assad. basically i just said it s very confusing. passengers on the italian airliner survived what one of them described as 10 seconds of terror when their plane hit turbulence and plunged some 10,000 feet. airline officials say it happened over the atlantic ocean on a flight from cuba to ita
we re going to show you live pictures of the united nations where the russia and china just vetoed a western backed u.n. resolution threatening sanctions against syria. we ll keep our eye on that situation. back to politics here. the romney campaign raising money off all the hype surrounding the picking of a running mate. a new campaign e-mail says the choice will be coming soon and one supporter will get the chance to meet the duo at a future event. now, on the stump in the battleground state of ohio, romney confirmed no decisions have been made. i can assure you that, even though i have not chosen the person who will be my vice president, that person will be a conservative, they will believe in conservative principles. i m joined by washington post reporter aaron blake who has written extensively on this.
at this hour. as we have been reporting they estimate 9,000 people have been slaughtered by the syrian forces since the up rising ban last year. that number is from april activists putting the death toll at 13,000. remember russia along with china has vetoed western backed security council rez laugses in syria. one called for president assad to step down. russian s form minister is not opposed to assad s departure but says that is up to the syrian people and no one else. evacuation orders in place as a new state joins the list of wild fair attacks. this is a tough one. they are fighting it from the air, from the ground, but in one critical area they are not getting any help. details on what it fuelling the flames. they were the heros and everyday homeowners and workers exposed to the area around ground zero