Hello and welcome to this aljazeera news hour live from doha im laughing that is coming up in the next sixty minutes Iraqi Government troops completes the seizure of kirkuk from the kurds after fierce fighting. Attacks on mosques in afghanistan killed scores of people it and then a deadly week for civilians in which hundreds have died. Or is morphing going to see more actions in africa and less. A shift in u. S. Counterterrorism strategy after the deaths of four american soldiers in the air plus. A Mantri Thomas in sydney all australians writes just a recent survey suggests as many as one in four people hear oh thats despite this country being on paper one of the most multicultural in the world. But first iraqi forces have now claimed control of the whole of Kirkuk Province after intense fighting against Kurdish Peshmerga forces the army says its captured the last town outen capri which is situated very close to a bill with the help of shia militias just a few hours earlier seventy deca reported from the battle zone with some of the peshmerga say they feel theyve been betrayed. A new front line opened early friday iraqi forces together would have still shabbier shia militias move towards peshmerga positions not to repeat the kurdish its around thirty kilometers south of erbil on the road to kirkuk. Yes theyre attacking it out and play and theyre attacking from do you. Also and theres nothing we can do about it only slightly on the Coalition Forces to come in and help as it hit the no doubt we have. A steady stream of reinforcements were sent throughout the day blankets and mattresses packed in with the soldiers ready to 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 well its going to everyone here is tense. Theres a heavy presence of ambulances here waiting to take any of the injured. Back to our. Prime minister has 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 and are below about what the peshmerga gained more territory since two thousand and fourteen as it pushed out of many areas the iraqi army used to control and last months referendum on secession seems to been the final straw for the Iraqi Government to 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 eisel but now their guns are turned on each other Stephanie Decker al jazeera on the road to kirkuk. All right we can speak to michael pretty gentle whos a former army officer as well as being a former advisor to the peshmerga and to Iraqi Security forces he joins us live now from washington d. C. Thank you for talking to us iraq a fighting iraq he does not bode well does it the fight for the future unity of the country. You know it doesnt this is a very serious situation and i doubt this is actually a tree the kurdish population of iraq likely or there isis theyre actually conducting military operations against the peshmerga there so isis targets in and around we journeyed around. So this is this is this is move laterally to two College Degrees for this peaceful war right and that when you first we dont seem to have too many details about the actual battles as to how many casualties have been sustained and so on but do you think the kurds would just accept this loss of territory which includes of course its its still in the crown kirkuk all do you think that they will plan to fight back. I think theyre surprised that the United States didnt back them up and the k. G. B. Barzanis party is surprised at the puke a case that would be the tonic clonic. Or Kurdish Regional government. Income cook you know general forces we keep hearing federal forces are moving in but when you define the sort of forces there Counterterrorism Forces and hostile shall be our g. C. Back to melissas not just sheer militias but commanded by our consul money lieutenant Money Laundering and on many on one hand theres so how do we use counterterrorism courses against the kurds and then the u. S. State Department Says were not taking sides well if youre not taking sides youre actually taking a side youre taking baghdad side and youre actually taking to iran side sisu all right ok im certain that they are and thats that thats clearly quite a clear situation then theres this division among the coeds theyre obviously fighting against these Anti Terrorism forces from baghdad you say with with a rainy and backing but what does this mean for the coalition that up until now has been pretty successful in fighting highfill i saw is not completely wiped out in iraq it. You know its not going to produce successful needs to strike force in the cities ramadi percent destroyed to create the illusion mosul almost sixty percent destroyed so im going to challenge a Successful Campaign against isis in those terms and this is this is different this is about payback for the hospital shari and it always said your next novel dosh after isis into you and were seeing that now so how do the body doesnt have control of the hospital sir they answered a custom salonen through a many a one hundred and and how do you allow marie watercourse there to commanders they were there to do room when did kurdish language. Lowered and the iraqi flag was actually rose and they used the water flux you can see khatamis last march and see some of the hot climates and this is a necessary step to realize troops under the control these are these are your rogue militias doing what they want and theyre pushing past the two doesnt really want and thats very concern all right and i thank you very much michael preachin to talking to us from live there from washington d. C. Thank you. Now to neighboring syria where codifies is who helped drive eisel out of raka now say that the people of that city will determine its future they form part of the Syrian Democratic forces all the see if which is backed by the u. S. They recapture the city which had been i sort of self proclaimed capital ever since twenty fourteen now theyre fully handed over control of record to a council of local officials and tribal leaders most of the city those been reduced to rubble less than three thousand people still if that. Was. The future of iraq will be decided by the people of iraq. This is quite important and the family of the governor the right will at men this time there are as by themselves we have a 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. Well elsewhere in zero syria rebel groups have signed a cease fire with the government in eastern goods are on the outskirts of the capital damascus barters hashem a whole bar now reports the deal is a fragile one. These are fighters from failed luck a raman a Syrian Rebel Group that controls. A neighborhood on the outskirts of damascus the area is a rebel stronghold. They engage almost daily in skirmishes with Government Forces the army has been trying hard for years to take back these areas to help secure the capital and you. Would have thought alina the government is tightening the siege to break our resolve but it will never happen were not scared of the airstrikes the daily shelling and the armys reinforcements we are committed to fight to the death the rebels are digging tunnels that are run from the rest of. These tunnels are vital lifelines for the rebels who are short of a munition and may not be able to defend their territory for a long. You know about that mean it is hometown it means a lot to me my family my loved ones my memories are all linked with this i will fight here to the death eastern border has been under government says to thousand and thirteen u. N. Aid convoys have only been allowed in a few times. Civilians have nowhere to go covered it is rare and food prices on the rise. We suffer daily the Army Attacked Us with missiles rockets and warplanes the seizures made our lives hell for the time being the fighting has stopped in this area but no one knows whether the ceasefire that was recently we would hold some water was the focal point of the two thousand and eleven demonstrations in syria it became a rebel stronghold but six years later the army backed by russia is gaining ground using sea as a weapon to force the civilians out of their area or they might with facing starvation. On turkeys border with syria. I saw has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a shia mosque in afghanistan it was one of two attacks targeting mosques in the country killing more than seventy people the attack at the shia mosque in the capital kabul killed at least thirty nine people injured dozens of others the most was packed with worshipers attending friday prayers the Second Attack was in the central goal province where a suicide bomber struck a sunni mosque more than thirty three people were killed including a rebel commander who was apparently the target of the attack then we thought. Right after the cleric started the prayer as i was passing by the mosque and the explosion happened there was 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 injured by the shattered windows were taken to hospital by ambulance and the dead bodies were lying there. Jennifer gas has more now from the Afghan Capital kabul. The attacker made his way into the in moms arm on mosque in the middle of friday prayers he placed himself in the middle of those prayer growers now that of course is a shia mosque in western kabul and then he detonated his bomb killing scores of people injuring scores of others this is one of a number of attacks that have happened against the shia population the vast number of these attacks though against shia have been claimed by the Islamic State in an increase as they kind of increase their offensive here in afghanistan at the same time as that was happening here in kabul in central afghanistan and province another attacker another bomber detonated a bomb in another mosque this is a sunni mosque now his attacker his target quite different a local militia commander and his men but these two attacks kept off a very very bloody deadly week across afghanistan where weve seen not only these attacks on friday but across afghanistan the taliban have killed at least one hundred fifty people. In the north in the south in the east and in the southwest of afghanistan give you an idea of the challenges the afghan Security Forces face the Afghan Government determined to bring the taliban to the peace table but not only is the Afghan Government facing a resurgent taliban you also have other antiGovernment Forces as well creating unrest in afghanistan. The u. S. Is due to shift its counterterrorism strategy in order to focus more on africa the defense secretary james mattis is be meeting members of congress to explain the change now this comes as the white house is under pressure to be more forthcoming about the deaths of four american soldiers in the air two weeks ago after the meeting senior republican Lindsey Graham spoke about the new u. S. Strategy. The war is morphing youre going to see more actions in africa and less youre going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies not less youre going to have decisions being made not in the white house but out in the field and i support that entire construct so the rules of engagement are going to change when it comes to Counterterrorism Operations were going to move to status based targeting so if you find somebody whos a member of a terrorist organization then we can use lethal force they dont have to present an immediate threat well Lawrence Korb is a former u. S. Assistant secretary of defense and he says there needs to be more transparency about exactly what happened in the. 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 in what other countries are we talking about i doubt that most people even knew we were in air and according to the pentagon they were in the soup for an advise and assist mission it was not a combat mission we didnt have any air power we had the french was supposed to come and help us out but they couldnt drop bombs and so was run very very chaotically 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 did how did that happen what was the role of contract is it 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 come and tell us right after this happened what was going on with the u. S. As his face is on his way to the middle east on a mission with his faith because some of the conflicts in the region right phyllis and fessed up will be saudi arabia where hell discuss the ongoing battle in yemen as well as the crisis between gulf arab states and qatar and egypt says say mr tillotson said he had little hope that the months long go for diplomatic deceit would be resolved soon claiming the full blockading nations refusing to engage in talks. We got a lot more to come on this. A month after maria. And. Find out why campaigning this sundays election in. The l. A. Dodgers reach me. For the first time in almost thirty years. Details coming up later. In a few hours from now spains Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy is expected to unveil specific measures to impose director along catalonia meanwhile catalan separatists are calling on a new kind of protest ripples from the capital. And online message from a Pro IndependenceCampaign Group saying peaceful direct action shows the power of the people. The call was to take some money out of banks that are moving their registration out of catalonia in case of independence withdraw one hundred fifty five euro the number of an article in the constitution being triggered to impose direct rule on catalonia by madrid why because the spanish dictatorship is unbearable. I think putting pressure on is a good move with thousands of people doing the same thing. The government still has no mood for any compromise. In catalonia there are movements that want revolution so they want civil disobedience today there was a call to withdraw money from banks. Then came a message from the Prime Minister himself saying the cross. Isis was at a critical point and his party and the main opposition were agreed on action. They have broken the rule of law a basic principle of the European Union they have deprived the representatives of the opposition of their right to exercise control and government imagine if i decided to close parliament so nobody could question me it would be a scandalous situation. Article one five five from the one nine hundred Seventy Eight constitution will take power away from the Regional Government here it could mean elections it could mean a formal declaration of independence it might lead to public disorder in barcelona and now you really sense a fear of the unknown on both sides of the divide in this crisis shared by politicians and the people alike we fear that we are going to need. So to me as a danger and that maybe we will not be able to push back when we are there and thats a feeling that they sing we all are in barcelona half right now. On saturday will hold we will hold an emergency Cabinet Meeting its unlikely to calm the situation right now and theres a risk it could mean calls for peaceful direct action could turn into something more dangerous Andrew Simmons aljazeera. The french president. Says talks on how much the u. K. Would have to pay in order to leave the European Union and not even halfway through the e. U. Summit in brussels britains Prime Minister to resign may requested more cooperation from e. U. Leaders in the slow moving talks. To resume a new in advance thered be no major breakthrough for fellow e. U. Leaders made clear that insufficient progress had been made to move talk beyond the current deadlocked difficulties over money and to begin talking about future trade she instead issued what sounded like an appeal for help by a politically weakened Prime M