A russian fighter jet is shot down in syrias provinces the governments battle to retake the rebel held territory continues. Italys Prime Minister condemns a drive by shooting targeting african immigrants warning hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide people. And thousands of corsicans march to model tanami head of a visit from french president emanuel next week. And im far as smiling all the days sport including arsenal crush average ten five one in the English Premier League thanks to an aaron ramsey. Begin the program in syria where fighters linked to al qaida have claim responsibility for the downing of a russian jet that province Defense Ministry has confirmed that the planes pilot managed to eject himself but was killed in a subsequent ground fight russian planes have been targeting rebel fighters alongside the Syrian Government since december with more than thirty fighters killed in High Precision strikes on saturday alone the u. N. Says some one hundred thousand civilians have been displaced by the violence Stephanie Decker reports from the turkey syria border. This is a russian fighter jet shot down by opposition forces. I mean remember the pilot manages to eject but he didnt survive. For these syrian fighters its a huge symbolic victory. Russian the Syrian Government have intensified their bombardment province over the last two months Government Forces a slowly capturing territory in the south what is the last remaining syrian province under full rebel control. Theyre inching closer to the city of sirte archive which lies on a strategic road linking the northwest all the way to the capital damascus territory that is now almost fully under government control. And in syrias complex web of regional and international allegiances some say this offensive has been well planned and has further implications been there are some people who are in fact wondering if there is a tacit agreement between the russians and the turks whereas the russians would actually give the green light for the turks to in again the kurds in exchange for the russians and its allies actually to capture parts of this of this. The government offered meaning adored between the mosques and that there but. That offensive against the kurdish controlled district is now into its third week turkeys backing fighters from the Free Syrian Army against the Kurdish People protection units. Turkey considers the y. P. G a terrorist Organization Even though its the United States is most effective in fighting. Turkey has been intensely shelling the areas there is a base just right behind us and this is in line with what politicians here are saying the first phase of this operation the a man. Its a push to wipe away from its borders. All along that border a steady stream of military Movement Vehicles i mean and buses packed with syrian f. S. A. Fighters this is a very visible operation but its also a difficult one the white p. G. Know the terrain well and they have been preparing for this its the latest frontline in a war that year after year simply changes its form and never seems to end. Stephanie decker or jazeera on the turkey syria border. Well in all the developments in the country Syrian Government has denied allegations that it used chemical weapons against civilians and rebel held Eastern Ghouta the u. S. Made the accusations after a suspects attack on thursday but syria thora tease of responded by calling them lies without evidence the volunteer rescue group the white helmet says three people were killed in the attack with many more inches. So joining me now in the studio is going to yield is he is a visiting fellow European Council on Foreign Relations an advisor to the British ForeignAffairs Select committee and hes actually just returned from Northern Syria so you were in the region only very recently can you tell us where abouts in Northern Syria you were visiting i visited mostly the arab majority areas on the syrian the more under the control of through in the Market Forces the kurdish that group i went to iraq hard to remember in the northwest and the as well as other cities mainly go to cities like commercially kabbani and other cities and we knew that this was coming for a long time the turkish government president has been angry about the u. S. Alliance with the y. P. G i supposed if that support had wound down and reach some sort of natural conclusion after the offensive against eisel in the area perhaps we we wouldnt see this this turkish intervention now actually that might have also caused turkey to intervene because turkish government too was actually waiting for the end of the rock operation against isis and they were expecting the u. S. Support for the syrian kurds will go down after that so that they will have a maybe room to maneuver and intervene in some ways into syria when they saw that this is not happening the u. S. Is firmly committed to support why p. G. In these new fiftys they had to make a deal with russians in order to target a region called our friend its not in the north northwest it is by the same group like the. Operating there along with. You suffered ministration but that area is of away from the area where u. S. Is cooperating with the y. P. So this is for the moment that might contain any sort of serious escalation between the u. S. And turkey because basically the area that turkey is targeting doesnt fall under that u. S. Security. Could that potentially change if the turkey is into other parts of Northern Syria thats the. Issue but the other issue is that yes this area is away from u. S. Support but u. S. Officials actually greenlighted poor or maybe more silent at the beginning of this attack mostly because that they assume this attack will be limited and isolated attack in africa but as weve seen in the last fourteen days that the attack has been linked to the rest of Northern Syria y p gs reinforcing their troops in. A free and. Any a defeat of y p g which is looked on likely at the moment can or destabilize most of Northern Syria so in that sense. Thats why probably weve seen more harsher comments coming from washington afterwards well it is in many ways washingtons policy of continued support for the why p. G. That has angered the turks is that support likely to continue in the face of such strong opposition now backed up by military action from techie well the u. S. Alliance on the ground gives us access to you know one to the syria almost you have those military bases there has invested heavily on that region that region is mostly stable with the u. S. Ally being in firmly in charge which is also allied with other arab groups so i feel that it will be unlikely for us to. In a slowdown its limited support for the i. P. G. Because that will mean that theyre all the investments into the stability of this area will be reversed and the area will be used for disabling expense of very serious and long lasting damage that the relationship with turkey i think the only you know solution to this problem is because turkish position is maximalist it its not that why should. The turkish position is that y. P. Should cease to exist in Northern Syria that is a maximalist position the only position probably that can succeed is to bring together y p g and turkey through some sort of mediation and europe is actually yes i was going to ask you what are the prospects for that because you know that the knock on effect from this very serious humanitarian consequences many people displaced is that any chance for this to be brought to some conclusion or at least deescalated through talks well the russian diplomatic efforts some weve seen the limits of that in such meeting recently but i think think europe has been more and more more and more irrelevant to the conflict despite the bearing the brunt of the effect of the conflict but france on the president micron is poised to get better they can play a more Important Role in breaking. Brokering some deal between wipe e. G. Turkey russia because the france is the only country that can speak to all the countries in astana process as well as they have a military base on the ground in Northern Syria and peru prison micron is defining his presidency in terms of Foreign Policy he has been given ambitions so in that sense i see france potentially playing an Important Role in maybe on the diplomatic front to bring an end to rising. Escalation of the conflict well thank you very much appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us tonight clearly elt is from the open council on Foreign Relations thank you. Well now moving to our other top story this hour Prime Minister has condemned a racially charged drive by shooting saying that hatred and violence will not be allowed to divide people five men and one woman were attacked in the central italian town of much areto because they were black police have arrested a man who was wrapped in an italian flag and doing a fascist salute me to shop has mall. This was a drive by shooting that Italian Police said was racially motivated firing from this vehicle the lone gunman is said to have targeted foreigners on the streets in a shooting spree that lasted over two hours. It took place in the central italian city of mature author the mass said six people were wounded all of them black one with life threatening injuries. A twenty eight year old italian name does look at try any was arrested by military police draped in an italian flag he reportedly wore during the shootings tourney had no previous criminal record and his motive for the shootings is unclear he did stand as a far right candidate for the Northern League in recent local elections but received no votes in the count the italian Prime Minister was quick to condemn the shootings who put them into could mean only known for some of it ill call now what you want supermodel behavior cannot have ideological motivation criminals are criminals will start to set up but theyre going to meant to serve it over to your state will be particularly severe against whoever thinks of nourishing the spiral of violence lets stop this lets stop this right now. Will be to tensions in much errata had risen this week following the discovery of pamela musto pietros body she had run away from a Drug Rehabilitation Center on monday and police said shed met a nigerian drug dealer the next day he was arrested by police. More than six hundred thousand mainly african migrants have reached italy by boat over the past four years and the center right block says the vast majority have no right to asylum in this promised mass expulsions if it takes peter shop aljazeera. As it has had to have a man arrested for the shootings is a form a mayoral candidate for the right wing Northern League earlier we spoke to me a historian of modern europe he says italys right wing parties are increasingly highlighting the immigration issue head of the elections in march. Theyre pushing a lot towards this and the immigrants agenda rhetoric because itll in many cases is getting as we all know huge influx of immigrants refugees from from africa from libya especially and so on so this is in any case creating tension as in the rest of the western globe i mean its not just an italian story is a why there is a much wider story the point is that since the nine this some of this Political Force and the immigrant forces are within the context of and these are power that works in the context of the moderate center right in italy and this will not disappear the rhetoric will not disappear because this case really will make the. Tension Even Stronger words did that theyve been in power already with Silvio Berlusconi says the in the ninety s. Theyre not the league has been one of them one of the major part in any case they claim and some tough one team ignorance lowells so i mean in theory yes they can they can win the election i mean if we look at sort of its today electoral surveys the center right is leading but we dont know with a proportional electoral proportional system if they will get a majority or not so things are very unclear now and so far but these parties ive been already influencing italian politics since a very long period now the problem is that for years and probably even today a good part of the italian media as well as never consider them as far right. Thousands of nationalist protests as a marched on the island of corsica demanding more autonomy from france saturdays protest comes three days before french president Emmanuel Macron to visit the island theyve changed to has more. Nationalists were out in force on the streets of the capital a show of defiance against the description of that island as just at the ministry of region of france and message corsica is a country a nation and the people. Are very important day for the people of corsica because france doesnt want to listen france has not answered our demands and doesnt want to dialogue the island is one of the poorest regions in france one in five live below the poverty line the younger generations are leaving to find jobs and education they cannot afford independence but they want significant changes in. The. Nationalism has found a renewed force on the either the. Will so long ago just singing the course commercial anthem was enough to get youve beaten up by the French Police here now the islanders are demanding official status for their language. All. Expression of course you can roots was rapidly merge with the expression of political demands so the singing became hard for the political authorities to accept and not only the french but also some corsicans were supporters of great affronts the confrontation then became violent extremely violent very extreme and. The brutal struggle for corsican independence lasted for four decades before weapons were finally surrendered three years ago the political fight to the ballot box is proving much more successful. A coalition of nationalists now commands forty one out of the sixty three seats in the course can assemble e one of their key demands is for the return an amnesty of what they call their Political Prisoners held in jails across france it will still be some say. What happened in the election last december was an earthquake it wasnt just the usual renewal of the absolutely the course people voted by an absolute my york city for corsican nationalities thats the fact that there are third parties have to think about. A Long Campaign of violence failed to achieve anything for the separatists but now they have a nationalist majority in the congress and they believe that they can obtain victory for the ballot box many of the young people here feel that their victory could still be stolen from them and theyre determined to open a real dialogue with powers. Corsica was the birthplace of napoleon the man the french president is most often measured against in terms of his use than grand visions will macron choose compromise or will he defend integrity of france and its language. The a. P. Chaytor aljazeera course the i know watching the news hour live from london much more to tell you about in the program doctors in the u. S. Are trying to manage the worst flu outbreak in a decade also how the transit ministration has dealt a blow to argentinas Biofuels Industry and then may transport the brunt james speaks out on reports that hes leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers. U. S. President donald trump says the release of a de classified memo totally vindicated him in the russia probe the document which was released on friday claimed the f. B. I. And the Justice Department used unsubstantiated evidence to spy on a trunk eight tom ackerman has more from washington. Democrats in congress say that now that the republican memo has been released its time for their version of events to be released for the president to allow its declassification and so that the public can see just how selective arbitrary the republican version of events was but ultimately the question here is how this will affect the moeller investigation the president was asked point blank whether in fact he will now ask for the firing of the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who the republicans accuse of having authorized this continuation of this surveillance under a court order and the president said cryptically you figure that one out subsequently white house officials said no the president is not looking for any changes at the highest levels of the Justice Department but nevertheless that cloud still hangs over the Justice Department with the president s continuing tweeds against both the f. B. I. And his own officials in the Justice Department. Well u. S. Secretary of say is in argentina on the second stop of his five nation tour of Latin America Rex Tillerson