Iraqi forces launch an assault on last strongholds in the country. Logan on peterbilt were watching al jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also ahead kenyas president cast his vote in the Election Rerun but an Opposition Boycott is overshadowing the process. Bidding farewell to a revered moment bangkok comes to a standstill for kingpin the problems five day funeral. And the Catalan Leader and the parliament are to meet to discuss madrids plans to take control of the region. Iraqi forces have launched an assault to recapture two key towns held by isis and ra in the west of iraq and near the Syrian Border and they are among the last strongholds in the country Stephanie Deca is in bill in Northern Iraq so stephanie weve got this offensive going on in west and what are your sources telling us the latest information. When it started early this morning there has been an offensive in unbar province led by the iraqi forces for quite some time pushing ice a lot of those areas this now is significant because seems to be the final push to areas particularly the border town of all this is still controlled by icelands is the last International Border the last border controlled by the group and thats of course significant because of the huge Propaganda Campaign that the group did in sort of bulldozing down borders and establishing it so cold state so this is now under way there been preparations for quite some time its being led as i said by the Iraqi Counterterrorism forces federal police the need tribal fighters on the ground and also the hash which is the shia militia and certainly the people you speak to will tell you that they dont believe this is going to be an extremely long battle they are of course still the morale is high following the victory in mosul it has been difficult thats for sure but yes this is sort of the last effort of taking back the last held eisel territory in iraq the last pockets and weve also got these reports of iraqi forces taking on Peshmerga Forces so theyre not totally united and focused on the fight against isis. No since the referendum the kurdish referendum on secession in september and its already fractured and also because that common enemy has largely been defeated. The old scores in the old unresolved issues are now being addressed its not surprising peter many people would have worried that this would have happened but perhaps how its happened is quite shocking what youre seeing now is skirmishes a both sides shelling sporadically around an area around thirty kilometers south of the Border Crossing which is between iraq and syria now the intentions we understand from baghdad is to retake all the Border Crossings currently within the k r g. Under federal control then of course the significance of that is huge this particular Border Crossing has been held under kurdish will since one thousand nine hundred ninety one it is skirmishes it is concerned i think if you look at the why did you political things that are going on you have the iraqi Prime Minister who was in turkey yesterday today with the announcement from turkey that they intend to open another a new Border Crossing with iraq and turkey hes also currently in iran and just come back to this whole issue of you know between the kurds in the iraqis weve just heard from the iraqi Prime Minister in a statement that he says again peter going back to the carriage offering to freeze the referendum results to get an immediate ceasefire to stop all this fighting were seeing and dialogue between. Saying no were sticking to what we said all along that you need to and make a boy to the results of that referendum which was of course overwhelmingly a vote for yes for kurdish independence stephanie thanks very much. Security forces in kenya have fired live rounds on people protesting against the president ial Election Rerun. Of. The Opposition Leader raila odinga has asked his supporters to boycott what he called a sham election the polls opened a few hours ago except in a stronghold of kisumu with some voting material has yet to be delivered to the Supreme Court and the old the first poll held in august irregularities Catherine Sawyer joins us live now from kisumu in western kenya katherine whats the picture where you are. Peter i am at a place called conveyor theres been running battles between police and protesters for quite a while police have been pushing them back using tear gas and we also heard what sounded like gunshots a little earlier and then those young men there have been using slings to throw stones at police so weve been here for a while and its also been very difficult getting to this location peter theyve been there roadblocks improvised roadblocks that have been set up and it took us we had to very carefully negotiate our way through this roadblocks to make sure people there telling us that they want to make sure that no materials gets to the polling stations and peter actually no but syrians have got into police stations in this area its called central earlier we were at a polling station the only polling station that we managed to get to it was a struggle getting a polling station thats open and we tried several of them we spoke to the electoral officials there peter who were very concerned and they said the biggest challenge really is getting election materials to the polling stations then one hundred and one thousand one hundred ninety nine polling stations here in kisumu central another concern that the officials are telling us is to get in there is to get their Staff Members to go to work three half of three hundred and one thousand nine elections stuff members clarkson people like that unable to go to work citing security concerns and we also saw some observers in hotels we did not see them out in the field we did not see in the other polling station again a lot of security concerns especially when it comes to the people who are really involved in this election peter looking at live pictures there catherine it looks as if that crowd is ready for something of a punch up potentially with your fellow writers who want to the electoral authorities. If a big percentage of people either through choice or through fear do not cast a vote. Chairperson of the Electoral Commission one. Has said that even. The returning officers the chiefs the both sides of the Electoral Commission in the constituencies even a feel for some reason or that security or any other reason that the election is not able to take place then they have the authority to console or postpone this election perhaps for the election to be carried out a later date we spoke i said to one of the returning officers who said that he is waiting its still too soon hes waiting for the end of the day to be able to make that call and before he makes that call he has to do a lot of consultations but then again the low the constitution also says that all the results from the two hundred ninety constituencies have to be an announcer that could be a problem and thats also being interpreted in different ways as some lawyers ive spoken to said that just the fact that electro materials and they are not able to get to some places that can be used by the Election Commission to justify why an election was not held but then again thats a pita this leaves really room for a lot of legal challenges people will most likely go to court to challenge this election. This is in theory catherine a vote on who the people of kenya want to become president but is it also a vote on the credibility or how the people of the country perceive the Electoral Commission and the Supreme Court because when those two parties handed down their judgment on the first election that generated a lot of controversy in itself. It did generate a lot of controversy and in fact the decision by the Supreme Court who are on the hitch so to speak of the Supreme Court yesterday really angered a lot of people particularly here with us saying something must not be right weve seen the president going around over the months really castigating the Electoral Commission no no sorry the castigating the Supreme Court a lot of people saying that theres a lot of interference within the sort of the Supreme Court interference of the Electoral Commission by politicians so that is certainly something that is being talked about here but again like you mentioned the election here is really between still reloading and. Between those who are going to vote both were not going to vote or who are looking at a need a high voter turnout to be able to sort of legitimize hes win and the right loading the need the low voter turnout to be able to say look my supporters and there are millions of them have not voted they have not and those this when they will not and those who are looking at this president s secret are katherine thanks very much. The incrimination ceremony of the late thai king. It is the main part of a five day Funeral Service the ceremony is led by his son rama the tenth the time on it died just over a year ago after reigning for seven decades has more now from bangkok. The funeral ceremony lasts for five days but of course the main day hes the day when the late king jr day will be cremated there are actually two cremation ceremonies one a symbolic ceremony and then the main cremation which will take place late on thursday evening in a purpose built funeral site a purpose built crematorium on a site just outside the grand palace before then its a very slow procession taking the royal urn containing the body all the late king from the grand palace where he has been lying for the past year eventually making its way just outside the gates to that funeral but its a very slow procession will take around three hours before they arrive at that site as you can imagine its a very hot day in bangkok but that hasnt stopped thousands of people coming out onto the streets the palace says it was expecting some two hundred fifty thousand people to fill the streets around the funeral sighed to say a final goodbye to the late king want to do a new day. Still ahead here on aljazeera travels to one of the most dangerous places in Central African republic for a firsthand look at the bloody conflict there. Through tranquil a rave you can you. Can freeman to use and its in the shape. How those big thunderstorms around the g. In the bosphorus of the last. Die down are still shadows around this line of cloud is still potentially west. Drifts across the eastern side of the black sea the rest of europe has a lot of cloud around very little in the way of rain i have to say that cloud is just the top of a warm dome this running up from spain and portugal through france twenty degrees today in paris sixteen in london thats above where it should be may not last because there is cold air tucked in there its only thirteen in berlin and this breeze quite obviously is telling and i think it will dig down i will win so were down to about forty in vienna rain coming in as you can see for sixteen in paris fourteen in london definitely a northerly breeze there the way it doesnt look quite as good as it is currently except in spain portugal now those storms there are still showers around theyve been running around the gulf and there has been typically twenty thirty millimeters reported in libya there drifting slowly eastwards in the mud even hit the far north of egypt as it was circulation carries on the same is true of cyprus and maybe the south of turkey otherwise its fine in north africa relatively warm the big showers in tropical after moving slowly south to disarm cameroon is typical and gab all of the west is places in the last two days. The weather sponsored by cattle and place. Where on line we were in hurricane. Almost like thirty six hours these are the things that has to address or if you join us on saturday im a member of the ku klux klan but we struck up a relationship this is a dialogue tweet us with hash tag stream and one of their pitches might make them actually join the conversation at this time on. Welcome back you without zero life from the how your headlines iraqi forces have launched an assault to retake the last times held by i saw on iraqs western border with syria and iran are among the last strongholds in the country. Kenyas president Uhuru Kenyatta has cast his ballot in the controversial Election Rerun but the vote is being overshadowed by protests and an Opposition Boycott the Supreme Court an old the first poll which was held last august because of polling irregularities and the information of the late thai king has now begun its considered the main part of a five day Funeral Services led by his son rama the tenth. The u. N. Secretary general has made his first visit to one of africas most troubled countries and turning visited those displaced by the conflict in the Central African republic and paid tribute to u. N. Troops killed there and it was heart reports from bangor through one of the areas worst affected by the violence. Alive but the fear remains for to mom and her two children were among hundreds of muslims praying in a mosque when a christian vigilante started shooting at them. Scores were killed were all peacekeepers eventually came to the rescue bringing them to this church for protection. Since then every night and identified gunmen come back and shoot towards the church. They want to kill us and all we want to see peace and for this violence to. But guess who is regarded as one of the most dangerous places to be in Central African republic christian militias control this town under un escort to our minders told us it is too dangerous for us to venture out alone or christian vigilantes are accused of killing muslims animosity is said to be fanned by politicians and local leaders on the other side of this conflict or the selective muslim fighters located just outside of town theyre accused of targeting christians both groups are said to be responsible for attacks on un forces and aid agencies the violence in the region is said to have displaced an estimated one Million People mostly muslims the safety and security of these people depends on the presence of un peacekeepers in the eyes of some they are the only force capable of bringing stability back to the country but human Rights Groups accuse some of them of sexually abusing those theyre meant to protect the u. N. Secretary general says he has zero tolerance for this. About the sexual abuses allegation against un peacekeepers what is being done to address this why are there cases coming up again and again we have national. International victims rights advocate that i have appointed we have now signed with more than eighty countries a compact with a code of conduct and norms to guarantee that there will be no impunity because peacekeepers come from countries and they are subject to the legislation of those countries we are taking a number of other measures to put the victims in the center and im visiting victims here in silicon republic and we are creating a number of conditions that will offer the tolerance policy that we have to be fully implement the challenges for those who have fled never seem to end aid agencies are cutting food rations because of lack of funds from International Donors as a result children are not just going hungry in some places theyre dying of malnutrition. The secretary general says whats happening here cannot be ignored. That her world is marked by the wall by the walls of a church but at least for this time being she and her children are safe. Because following the u. N. Secretary generals visit he joins us law is there any efforts to bring the rebel groups to the table here. Well peter all the previous efforts such as the rome Peace Agreement that was signed in june have failed in fact rebel groups got together in italy signed a deal but the day after the violence just escalated and it just got worse the problem is these former and. Former are all fragmented in various groups and they each want to be at the table to sign their peace any sort of Peace Agreement on this visit early on said thats the root of this conflict is found in politicians and politics politicians for mentoring hate speech and he says that the solution to this will also come from politics back in january the un is backing what is called the African Initiative where dozens of African Leaders will come to the Central African republic in november try to meet the various rebel groups in order to find a long lasting peace but of course peter to find peace is the solution the most important aspect of it is to address the issues of the Muslim Population here who have for decades felt discriminated against and so there are more than a Million People displaced many to neighboring country most of them muslims and so the government needs to address this issue of how will these people return back home how will they be received will be will there be allowed to come back and repossess their lands their