Hello and welcome to this aljazeera news hour live from doha im on team that is coming up in the next sixty minutes two suicide attacks on mosques in afghanistan killed schools of people that ending a deadly week for civilians in which hundreds of died. Iraqi Government Troops complete the seizure of Kirkuk Province from the kurds after fierce fighting. A month after Hurrican Maria and eighty percent of puerto rico is still without power of the island is in ruins. And more of us die every year from ed pollution and dirty water than in all the worlds conflicts a natural disasters come by and so says a new report. Now i see. Has claimed responsibility for one of the two attacks targeting most in afghanistan more than seventy people were killed in a hole in one of the attacks a man walked into a shia mosque in the capital kabul and set off an explosive vest at least thirty nine people were killed in that particular explosion dozens of others were injured the most was packed with worshippers attending friday prayers in the Second Attack that was in goal province where a suicide bomber struck a sunni mosque this time at least thirty three people were confirmed dead in that attack including a man described as a warlord who was apparently the target of the attack. Right after the cleric started the prayer as i was passing by the mosque and the explosion happened chaos amongst the people all the windows of the mosque were shattered the police from a nearby checkpoint arrived to try to control the crowd all the wounded victims in the shattered windows were taken to hospital by ambulance and the dead bodies were lying there. For lets take a closer look at some of these recent attacks in afghanistan forty three soldiers were killed on thursday after the taliban stormed a military camp that was in my wand district setting off two suicide car bombs before a gun battle feiss also attacked a Police Headquarters in the southeastern province of me that was on thursday and was the Second Attack on it this week and the group was responsible for an ambush in the northern valcke province in which Six Police Officers were killed on wednesday this after it was after eight on least a wave of attacks on tuesday targeting police compounds and government facilities with suicide bombers and killing at least seventy four people. Well omar samad is a former Senior Advisor to chief executive of afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah hes also a former afghan ambassador to france and canada he joins us live now from washington d. C. And its a terrible terrible week for the civilians of your country isnt it what is behind what what is the rationale would you say behind this this spike in attacks in your country. Well its been awful weve not only for civilian use but also who are Security Forces as you mentioned in the news item. This spike that we see happening right now at the hands of what we consider as being either taliban or this talk of Islamic State that has certain cells in the afghanistan pakistan Central Asian region which is called a risky peak. Acronyms these people are seen to be behind this now i think on one hand you have a seasonal issue coming up because as we move towards winter usually its tradition for predators in afghanistan to increase their attacks on one hand but these types of attacks where they are using suicide attackers they are very brazen. Go deep inside live military installations or inside mosques that are somewhat protected in symbolised or in the provinces sure that the taliban and was the highest cells are trying to disrupt any attempt that may be be happening behind closed doors to try and it political solution to afghanistans problems on the one hand at the same time i think theyre sending some messages to the United States to regional powers to the Afghan Government to the Afghan People and that message being what i mean do they want to be part of any potential Peace Process or do they not. What software they have and you know its been almost twenty years more or less than the collarbone have been around they have tried to capture the whole country not control any major territory the controlled territory but not media cities or audreys or even any single province. I think what im seeing is an a in uptick in attacks in order to strengthen their hands in case there are political negotiations coming up in also at the same time i think they want to tell the americans who have announced as as you know recently a new policy towards afghanistan and in the region itself especially targeting pakistan but even more responsibility on pakistan that the taliban will will not bow and will not accept any terms they want to show that the have the upper hand at the same time i think what they are trying to do is the more allies the Afghan Forces were strengthened over the past few years and there are claims by the americans and nato to further strengthen Afghan Forces i think they are trying to send a message that we will try to deter your attempts at strengthening the Afghan National security and that meant that message is coming over loud and clear isnt it i mean the fact that this week has been so dreadful largely for four afghan civilians highlights doesnt it the deficiencies if you like of the afghan Security Forces but also raises the added problem is the fact that the Afghan Defense forces a dealing with a multitude of fighting forces its not just the taliban. Absolutely. Thats what makes afghanistan more complex and i think as we move forward you have an issue is becoming more complex there are more regional players involved i think there are reports that the russians have a new agenda the iranians now getting more heat from washington be on the order some of their agenda and the pakistanis have had image for many years which has not elk and then find stability and security and what the Afghan Government needs to do is on one hand to make sure that there is better management and better leadership at the head of the Security Forces in also in middle management. The commanders need to make sure that we protect their forces to protect their bases i think that is absolutely crucial in the same time the project of strengthening the african causes in order to protect afghanistan and to stabilize afghanistan needs to go on all right omar samad thank you very much indeed. Now lisa Police Officers have been killed in a shoot out in egypt thats according to a security spokesman the attack took place in deezer that is southwest of the capital cairo theres been no claim of responsibility yet so iraqi forces of claim control of the whole of Kirkuk Province now from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces the army is same that it has captured the last town ill turn capri which is situated very close to erbil which is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan with the help of shia militias just a few hours earlier seventy deca reported from the battle zone where Kurdish Peshmerga sent reinforcements for the fight. A new front line opened early friday iraqi forces together with shabby or shia militias move towards peshmerga positions now to pete the kurdish its around thirty kilometers south of erbil on the road to kirkuk. Yes they are attacking it out and play and not attacking from day base also and theres nothing we can do about it im urging the Coalition Forces to come in and help as it hit the peshmerga we have martyrs that. A steady stream of reinforcements were sent throughout the day blankets and mattresses packed in with the soldiers defend their positions many here feel betrayed by Iraqi Government leaders in baghdad some fellow kurds and the international community. In reality when we used to fight everyone used to play the peshmerga they are brave they are fighting for the world and now they have done this plan they are attacking us as i see right now everyone is turning their backs on us. Mortar shells machine guns were fired throughout the day all its going to everyone here is tents. On mine and theres a heavy presence of ambulances here waiting to take any of the injured person back to our be. Prime minister hi there labatt is ordered iraqi forces not to enter abele and to stick to what he called the two thousand and three lines this is all about disputed territories longstanding on resolved issues between baghdad in erbil about what the peshmerga gained more territory since two thousand and fourteen as it pushed myself out of many areas the iraqi army used to control and last months referendum on secession seems to be the final straw for the Iraqi Government and neighboring countries who oppose kurdish independence the irony there were very similar scenes just a year ago as the peshmerga Iraqi Government forces and shia militias all moved in to ward a common enemy i saw but now their guns are turned on each other Stephanie Decker aljazeera on the road to kirkuk now kurdish fighters who are part of the force that drove out of rocca in syria saying the people of the city will determine its future Syrian Democratic forces or the s. D. F. Which are backed by the us recaptured the syrian city which had been i saw selfproclaimed capital now there formally handed over control over to a council of local officials and tribal leaders most of the city has been reduced to rubble and less than three thousand people still live there. And that is not. Yet in. The future of iraq will be decided by the. Iraq. This is quite important. And the family of the governor right will administer there. By themselves. Every country and every peace loving people and every peace Loving Organization to come and take part in the reconstruction rebuilding of the city and its countryside now the u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has congratulated the s. D. F. For their victory in rocca but the turkish president has not been terribly things hes been voicing his anger over the kurdish presence in the city president condemned the group for displaying a giant poster of the leader of the credits on Workers Party which of course turkey considers a terrorist organization. In syria theyre collaborating with a terrorist organization like the white p. G. To defeat another terrorist organization this kind of logic is unacceptable. There waving the poster of the terrorist leader in iraq or hows the United States going to explain this. Were going to a lot more to come on this aljazeera news hour including find out what defense secretary mattis is been telling us lawmakers about his new counterterrorism strategy. And why catalans are being urged to withdraw one hundred fifty five euros from their bank accounts. The l. A. Dodgers reached baseballs world series for the first time in twenty nine years defeating the defending champion details coming up later in sports. Now apparently the u. S. Is going to shift its counterterrorism strategy to focus more on Africa Defense secretary james mattis has been meeting members of congress on friday to explain the change and this comes of course as the white house has been under pressure to be more forthcoming about the deaths of the four american soldiers in the air two weeks ago now after the meeting senior republican Lindsey Graham talked about u. S. Strategy the war is morphing youre going to see more actions in africa and. Youre going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies not less were going to have decisions being made not in the white house but out in the field now support that entire construct so the rules of engagement are going to change when it comes to counterterrorism operation were going to move to status space targeting so if you find somebody who is a member of a terrorist organization then we can use lethal force they dont have to present an immediate threat. Ok we can talk to Lawrence Korb now hes a former assistant secretary of defense hes also former assistant secretary of defense and he joins us live from washington d. C. Good to talk to you this incident in asia two weeks ago is stirring up a plethora of issues in the United States isnt it perhaps the most interest the most interesting being this shift in u. S. Counterterrorism policy well theres no doubt about it we did not know about that until this incident happened this is something that certainly the congress should have been made aware of its certainly something that the American People should know because if you send their sons and daughters into battle we ought to know exactly whats involved and what other countries are we talking about i doubt that most people even knew we were in a jail where and according to the pentagon they were soups were not advise and assist mission it was not a combat mission we didnt have any air power we had the french were supposed to come and help us out but they couldnt drop bombs they lost one of their soldiers so it was run very very chaotic way there so what is the specific issue then that the president if not his defense secretary has and what are the questions that have to be answered specifically with regard to the new. Disaster. Well again what were the rules of engagement there why did they not get all of the dead soldiers out you know the military is very strong about you leave no one behind you know how to how did that happen what was the role of contractors that ended up a contractor not a u. S. Military person or Civil Servant was in there and you know on how many of them are there i mean and how much are we spending on this we have an Africa Command why didnt they call him and tell us right after this happened what was going on and did secretary mabus just change the rules of engagement now after this incident or was a something that was going on before wasnt going well thought out you dont want to have we know we know mystical deadly that this president this one thousand u. S. Troop presence in the air was in place before President Trump this was under the Obama Administration well its no doubt about it did the president obama and his secretary of defense did they Tell Congress to i mean this this is i think is is is a critical issue was it going on did they change the rules of engagement one of the things President Trump has done hes delegated more authority to the field commanders obama was criticized for having too much control did he do that and then they had this mission without you know proper supervision and what are the dangers of of of allowing more more flexibility with the commanders on the ground whether the potential danger is that. Well that their chances are that they would be more willing to use force you probably could have more civilian casualties as weve already seen for example in yemen since she changed the change the rules of engagement so yeah that is the danger in other words you could win the battle and lose the war if you kill civilians and it would feed into the narrative of these terrorist groups all right so now lawrence called thank you thank you very much thanks for having me now Somali GovernmentOfficials Say the number of People Killed in the countrys worst attack has now risen to three hundred fifty eight the president says alshabaab was behind last weekends twin bombings the armed group though hasnt claimed responsibility but the accusation is prompting fears about future tactics Mohammed Omer pulls out from the capital mogadishu. Some of the seriously wounded in such as bombing in mogadishu being airlifted abroad for treatment somalia hospitals of received much needed medical supplies patients time the way by all but one place patrols in the hours and days after the target finally getting attention. The talks become more lethal medical workers say they are forced to improvise their treatment plans for the main done. Is the time when you can see. How extended. The. Blast yet to be published u. N. Reports. New ways of constructing improvised bombs and increase their destructive falls it says the wait till the explosives has also increased and along with military good devices the group uses. But also fuel and gas canisters to maximum damage. Two thousand and yet they continue to considerable influence and help with all that complex system in which many businesses give them monthly contributions and with the. Help become. Collecting millions of dollars for their campaign of violence. The United Nations illegal taxation scheme simple expulsion and other socalled fees. On the strength. Of the witness of the Somali Government help the fight to succeed so money is going to be as angry and i stress and it. Seems theres a huge amount of you know you know and then you and the e. U. And im so on and. If you want to. President say its time to act i