Fields. Fully back to you watching aljazeera live from doha also coming up catalonia is leader fails to clarify if the region has declared independence an hour before an ultimatum from the Central Government is due to expire. The Philippines Army claims a major victory in the battle against isolate fighters in the south and venezuelas president celebrates the outcome of Regional Elections the opposition cries foul. Thank you for joining us the iraqi army is advancing on care coke and has taken a gas facility to the south of the city which was under kurdish control the Iraqi Military says its being supported by federal police with Shiite Militia in a supporting role care coke is a disputed area according to the Kurdish Regional government who believe it should be part of the kurdish region and any future kurdish state lets bring in there is johnny stock photos in erbil in Northern Iraq for us charlie bring us up to speed with whats happening on the ground for us are they still clashes going on. Well we certainly understand that the violence continues by iraqi forces going to stand and its actually happening coming from the south towards kirkuk the plan we understand is for iraqi forces to retake control of the k. One military base this military base was taken control of by Peshmerga Forces in two thousand and fourteen when the iraqi army fled and i still a faint see if according to our sources that theyre saying that iraqi forces have retaken or taken control of an oil Company Headquarters in that area theres also an area which we actually visited a couple of days ago an area called ela water which was very heavily defended by forces huge margin walls much as we saw tanks a lot of deployment a lot of reinforcements being moved into that area we understand now that. I have withdrawn from that area i think whats interesting is that some of these peshmerga some of the Peshmerga Forces are accusing their fellow fighters of withdrawing too early and its an indication possibly of the splits already within the Peshmerga Forces we saw only yesterday after this meeting that was held in silliman a between the various factions kurdish factions and this sort of show of unity it seems as if that unity is beginning to kind of split already so there are some very on the happy peshmerga fighters on the ground there having seen this ground already last week i stand it after k one has taken control of by the Iraqi Military they then will focus on Oil Facilities and we understand then possibly even a complete surrounding of kirkuk city itself meanwhile in the city itself civilians apparently obviously. Very afraid weve heard that the governor of kirkuk has asked civilians anybody basically with a weapon to take up arms to defend the city but it still remains relatively calm inside the city itself schools as you can imagine have been have now been canceled and were hearing the beginnings of families trying to leave the city toward silliman near and here in the air bill what is the Iraqi Government chinese saying about this operation what is ultimately their objective here. Well theres been a build up and very contradictory kind of language from the government. We saw in the immediate aftermath in the immediate wake of the controversial referendum on eventual kurdish session last month we saw parliament Iraqi Parliament vote and put pressure on the body to basically deploy troops to this very area and we heard very little from him in response to that until about three or four days ago when we saw this gradual build up of iraqi forces in this area after the battle for we over eisel was one at the time they about the government said that this was just a standard Troop Deployment and that the people of kirkuk had absolutely nothing to be afraid of and didnt know i did any deadline had been put on the k r g to withdraw from those areas and it was last night frankly where we saw the big statement before this advancement for malabar to yourself accusing the k r g of moving p. K. K. Fighters to the front there the p. K. K. An organization to terrorist organization not only by the Iraqi Government but not by the turks by the International Community itself as well the k r g denying that claim but our bodies saying that it was a declaration of war now weve seen this advance of iraqi forces towards those areas and ill a body is saying that the people of kirkuk still have nothing to be afraid of but he has a mandate to have federal control of these areas and. All people inside killed cook should cooperate with the Iraqi Military as they move forward. In Northern Iraq thank you very much for that update and other world news just hours before a deadline from the Spanish Government catalonia leader has failed to declare if his region plans to secede from spain the Central Government in madrid had given callous but you. On until eight g. M. T. On monday to say whether yet proclaim independence after a ban secession referendum area this month the Catalan Leader has sent a letter to the Spanish Government calling for a meeting with the Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy as go to need barca who is in the catalan capital barcelona need what more do we know about what congress which amount is saying to the Spanish Government. Well we know by the looks of it so we took a close look at this letter that was to put it on is given to the Spanish Government that hes not going to say yes or no as to whether or not independence has indeed been declared the deadline expires in probably just under an hours time all we have so far is this key letter which sets out a series of demands that completely of the skates the question set forth by madrid completely as to whether or not yes independence has been declared among those key demands is the demand crucially for talks between the catalonian leadership and the hallway and of course his government thats something that the catalonia leadership repeatedly asked for but its something of a nonstarter Mariano Rajoy is made it very very clear that negotiations are not on the table another key demand is the withdrawal of National Police of which around Twelve Thousand stationed here in catalonia and thirdly another key demands thirds very crucial when it comes to whats likely to unfold in madrid later on on monday is the Immediate Release of four key high profile catalans were talking about two sheeny a Police Officials and two figures that were leaders of Civil Society organizations that have he links to the Catalan Leadership they face charges at least the Police Officials do of sedition which carries with it the possibility of a fifteen Year Prison Sentence so a major issue for the council and leadership to make. Sure they can protect their own but when it comes to the key question well it doesnt look like that is going to be answered anytime soon yet and house a moderate government likely to respond to this letter needs. But i think theres going to be a tremendous amount of frustration of course that is another layer of frustration that money on arroyo has faced in dealing where with mr push him on there are of course key options open to the Spanish Government the Nuclear Option is the invoking of article one five five that as we all know would see lonia stripped of its autonomy there is no historical precedence for that it was briefly invoked over a dispute with the Canary Islands but never got further than the first initial stage so what this will actually look like nobody really knows theyll be several suggestions possibly the government here could be replaced with a technocratic government possibly led by the deputy Prime Minister they could also be an expulsion of the Catalan Leadership and of mr pidgen on himself there is also legally the option of the madrid government even arresting mr push him on although many believe that would be a step too far another option could see other opposition Political Parties essentially known as the session is forming a grand coalition to lead the region Going Forward religion very hard to imagine any of these options happening without large numbers of people turning out on the streets once again to protest neve barker in barcelona thank you very much for that neve to the philippines now where the defense minister says two senior isolate commanders have been killed in fighting in the Southern City of merari is neon happen on the lead of the group abu sayyaf which sees parts of the city in may his fighters were held why another group of them out one of its leaders on the day has also been killed Government Forces have been fighting the andro for control of murali for several months now jamie lynn the gun has more from murali. Well the secretary of defense that Delphine Lorenzana has confirmed the death of is me alone happy alone and all more about what they both are leaders of the mao to group they pledged allegiance to i still a few years ago and they raised its black flag over several parts of america we see it see the siege has been going on for more than four months now since the crisis began more than a thousand people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced now the brother of omar met with the abdullah mosiah was killed a few months ago also in a military led operation seventeen other hostages were also released today and the government admits that even though the conflict the fighting is not officially over there is still an unidentified number of fighters and hostages right inside the small battle zone now according to the Philippine Military theyre expecting liberation to happen any time soon now the president is expected to show up this week where the philippine flags at the heart of what are we city will be raised for the first time in months. Still ahead on aljazeera. They celebrate a bumper harvest after years of drought but well tell you why some are still skeptical about their future plus. Im jake wood in california in a moment ill explain why the government is looking at smacking something. Into something that size to save the earth. Hello and welcome to your International Weather forecast now weve got some quite interesting weather across europe many central southern areas looking really woman moment temperatures way above what they should be for the middle part of october meanwhile out across western parts of the British Isles we have an extremely deep area of low pressure which is incorporated the remnants of hurricane ophelia within it this storm is going across on and with wind potentials of up to two hundred Kilometers Per Hour in terms of gusts come tuesday though you see is gone because this shot away up towards parts of scandinavia so other states the warm air is still very much in place we get a lot of dust coming up from the sahara at the moment so some sets could be quite interesting across parts of france or towards more central areas showing up as a sunset so watch out for that otherwise Cool Conditions still for more eastern parts here twelve as a high in moscow north africa but wanted to showers coming in from the gulf towards the coast of libya otherwise fine conditions further east inkaar with temperatures topping out at thirty for central parts of africa we have a fair few showers around cameroon and towards the gulf of guinea reaching leader of times and across parts of it west africa still some showers likely here for the north into mali should be largely dry bamako thirty six. Right. There watching al jazeera live from doha a reminder of our top stories this hour the iraqi army is advancing on kirkuk and has taken a gas facility to the south of the city which was under kurdish control the military says its being supported by federal police with shia militia in a supporting role kirkuk is a disputed area according to the Kurdish Regional government. Just hours before a deadline from the Spanish Government cuts alone years leader has failed to declare if his region plans to secede from spain the Central Government in madrid had given collis would you want until eight g. M. T. Monday to see whether he had proclaimed independence after a ban secession referendum earlier this month. And the Philippines Defense minister says two senior icily means commanders have been killed in fighting in the Southern City of merari the abu sayyaf in multi groups have been in control of parts of the city since may. More now on our top story in the tensions in the disputed iraqi city of kirkuk where theyve been scam issues between iraq he forces and mega fighters lets bring in political analyst Ahmed Rushdie hes in baghdad joins us now live from there on al jazeera thank you very much for your time sir so on last week the Iraqi Government was denying that they had intentions to take over oil fields in Kirkuk Province the Prime Minister even claim that they were going after i so if there was an operation to be launched and now we have iraqi forces in an operation taking over oil fields apparently in care called what is the objective here and how difficult a battle is this going to be think. Well its according to the agreement between the peshmerga and the iraqi forces starting from i think in two thousand and fifteen is that the iraqi forces will return to their positions before the terms of june two thousand and fourteen before the invasion of isis to the iraqi territories now according to that agreement its supposed to be the redistribution happened after the liberation of of most of the iraqi soil specially the how we judge which means that according to the sec remained the iraqi forces is Going Forward to they are looking. In before the tenth of june two thousand and fourteen but the the most important thing is that who is leading this attack its merely the iraqi for many of the iraqi army with the federal police now there are talks that the pm of the shark militia is already engaged but there are all sorts some sort of fear now inside the city of kirkuk is that if the shot militia of the city there will be some sort of massacre seconds to against the kurds thats why we are hearing that there are the kurds inside the city of kirkuk they are fleeing to what money. For there is there is a rail there conveyed the theory being a sad real problem and the end of the day they are conflicting reports as to what is happening exactly and whether or not the Kurdish Forces are retreating i want to ask you about the timing of this operation there because i mean this comes at a time of heightened tensions between the Central Government in baghdad and the kurdish leadership after that controversial referendum last month presumably this was in the plans for some time now and this is what some would say the Iraqi Government simply trying to put more pressure on are the kurdish area in the north. Which is true its already. A lot of pressure happened now against on the shoulder of muscle but as ani. Precisely because of the end of whats happened in the twenty fifth of september as actually pave the way to a new era. In the relations between baghdad and never be able in a way that who are going to win the conflict and now we want we are actually in baghdad there are so many stories about there are already negotiations launched yesterday between baghdad and out of below in a way that the iraqi forces can take on lets say can we those locations in a way or another but not and to link the center of kirkuk and not Going Forward to take all of chemical thats why mr about he said yesterday is that we can share the security between the iraqi forces we can share the security with the peshmerga go which means that between the iraqi forces and the pressure monitor but whos pressure not to go so many oppression to go out to bill press my car this is a huge question because at the end who treat is actually still a money a pressure monitor which means that maybe there is under the table agreement between sulaimani and baghdad very complex situation indeed thank you very much for speaking to us ahmed rashi