Again im peter w. Watching aljazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up the talks on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics south koreas leader is invited to visit the north. Results in the sri lankan elections for the Record Number of women expected to take civil government. As a huge street party where people can figure out their economic and political woes were in brazil with the countrys carnival is in full swing. The u. N. Secretary general and tony good terrorists has called for an immediate and unconditional deescalation in syria after a series of cross border air raids by israel targeting iranian and Syrian Government forces is believed to be israels most significant attack against syria since one thousand nine hundred two it all began when israel says it intercepted an iranian drone flying in its airspace israel alleges the drone came from syria it responded with a major air raid in syrian territory targeting what it claims were iranian bases on the way back from the mission is ready jets came under syrian antiaircraft fire leading to the downing of one of its f. Sixteen s israeli jets then launched another cross border air raid hitting twelve Syrian Government and iranian targets its believed to be israels most significant attack against syria since one thousand nine hundred eighty two imran khan reports now from west jerusalem. In the early hours of saturday morning syrias war escalated to a new level for the first time in thirty years israel lost a fighter jet to enemy fire as israel confirmed Syrian Air Defense shot at one of its f. Sixteen fighter jets these really ply minister was blunt israel iran and its syrian coast responsible for todays aggression we will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect our sovereignty and our security the crash followed the shooting down of a drone israeli army video shows what they say is the iranian drone flying towards the northern Golan Heights before it was downed in retaliation the Israeli Air Force at targets in syria including the suspected Drone Command Center iranian targets and Syrian Air Defense syria launch surface to air missiles during the israeli raid and says it shot down the f. Sixteen which crashed in northern israel yes you who are at the heart of. The syrian Political Leadership took a decision at the highest level to face decisively any Israeli Military aircraft over therion in space today serious. Did what it promised by down in this rally plain and striking at other planes this is clear for syria it is the decisive decision to confront the Israeli Air Force and its careless behavior. Both pilots ejected and parachuted to the israeli side of the border one is critically injured the Israeli Army Spokesman said it was wrong it was behind the launch of the drone but didnt say whether it was armed or not the iranians have reacted theyve said that they are going to stand with syria against any felician us by israel the russians have also reacted saying that israel needs to respect syrian state to state sovereignty also what were hearing is that the israelis want to send a strong message to the russians to get iran out of the region iran can aljazeera western islam and soon bus ravi has more now on the reaction to the incident from the iranian capital tehran Irans Foreign Ministry said that the assertion that iran would fly a drone into israeli airspace is a ridiculous lie but iranian leaders celebrated serious retaliatory response to israeli airstrikes speaking to all jazeera the parliamentary spokesman on National Security and Foreign Policy said that the downing of a fighter plane was just a taste of what is to come if israel continues its aggressive policies. This shooting down in confrontation has some important messages first to design this regime should know that the era of hit and run tactics is gone and regional powers including syria lebanon and hezbollah have enough capabilities to confront aggression and these capabilities belong to these countries the zionist regime should not associate these capabilities with iran or other countries they are saying that an iranian drone shot down the warplane or an Iranian Military force did it this is a distortion to divert public opinion. With so many Different Actors in the syrian conflict with often simultaneously converging and diverging agendas there is always a worry that an incident like this could open another front in the fighting speaking at a News Conference president Hassan Rouhani said that israels policy of bombardment is a mistake and that while iran is prepared to defend itself and its allies in the region he said that the best way for neighbors to get along is to cooperate earlier i spoke about south of his events with the president of the National IranianAmerican Council trita parsi first where the american you face in the Syrian Civil War i think its important to keep in mind this is not the first time that theres been an iranian drone that either has gone into israeli territory or been very close by nor is it unusual that there have been israeli drones going into iranian territory flying from various different places as well as israeli assassination of the iranian scientists so there has been a degree war going on between the two countries for quite some time the question if this is now escalating to a completely new level and part of the challenge here again goes back to that there are no powers with the potential exception of russia that has enough power in and of itself and the capacity to talk to both the iranians entities the israelis in order to deescalate under previous circumstances United States might have had a stronger capacity to do so even though it didnt have much connections to the iranians where right now the United States is not really in a position to do that much and that is further making the situation explosive. Also in syria the u. N. Says two hundred thirty civilians have been killed by syrian and russian air strikes in the past week the un commissioner for human rights described it as some of the worst violence during the almost seven year long conflicts a drug all hussein says the strikes me also constitute war crimes he confirmed his office had received reports of the possible use of toxic agents earlier this month in the rebel held town of. A Turkish Military helicopter has been shot down in the north and syria during an operation against kurdish fighters this video is said to show the helicopter moments before it was hit near three and killing two soldiers on board kurdish Led Syrian Democratic forces say its fight says shut down the aircraft but turkey says the cause is still unclear a total of eleven turkish soldiers were killed in the fighting on saturday making it the deadliest day for the countrys forces since they began the campaign in africa last month jamal sheil is in gas and new turkeys border with syria. The downing of this turkish manufactured attack helicopter that was killed through this is a Significant Development in this three week long military operation that brings the number of talk to soldiers killed by the y. P. G. Kurdish Militia Group through over twenty years far as the turks are concerned theyve killed at least one hundred fifty kurdish fighters now some advances have been made on the ground in the past twenty four forty eight hours the Free Syrian Army which is fighting alongside Turkish Military in order to advance towards the y p g project from hold of our free and i have managed to capture some villagers on the road towards there as far as the turkish army is concerned and listening to president saddam tape around they will respond they think to go through were behind that attack whats important to note here is that although the. Kurdish authorities in. Why p. G. Claim that the Turkish Ministry has killed civilians in its operation ankara denies that they say the reason why this operation isnt going as fast as they wanted to is precisely because they have been trying to advise any death of innocent civilians that have been reports that the y p g and the p y d that the political wing of that car this militia have actually bus then cards from other towns and cities to use them as human shields the car this officials there with they actually this is just the natural response of the car this population in order to protect their town against what they see as a foreign aggression. Three weeks now into operation on a ranch that does seem as i think to be the advance made by the targets and the Free Syrian Army towards are fine but this downing of a helicopter will be for a touring car the rest of the targets in the true. North koreans olympic delegation has a lunch meeting in seoul with the south korean Prime Minister the night he owns the Group Includes the sister of the north Korean Leader kim jong moon earlyish extended a rare invitation to the south korean president to visit pyongyang and talks on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics and just going to him has more now from call no ones. In the president ial blue house in the capital seoul relations between the two koreas continued to thaw the meeting had to first kio jiang is the first member of the ruling family to cross into the south since the korean war the sister of the north Korean Leader came with the first ever invitation kim jong moon is asking south korean president moon jay in to come to pyongyang at a convenient time soon when theres a new and key. President moon said early talks between north korea and the United States are essential to improve relations here to north korea to be more proactive to move forward to have a dialogue with the United States. Its unclear when that might happen the u. S. And north korea have rebuffed lose attempts so far if an interesting meeting transpires it will be the first time kim jong un has met with the south korean president since assuming power in twenty eleven the last time leaders from the north and south met was eleven years ago during a summit in. Jordan because of all the global attention i believe reunification will be brought forth the government is making efforts and i think people are rooting for it organizers of the olympics say theyve been moved by the diplomatic breakthrough it was quite on the story a moment. And something that as you know the i. O. C. Has been generally working for since probably two thousand and fourteen. And you know i think it shows it opens opens the door maybe just a little bit critics say they doubt that door will ultimately open much more for now there is hope that the Winter Olympics is the catalyst for a reboot in intercourse and relations natasha going to aim el jazeera south korea votes are being counted in sri lanka or office most peaceful election for decades since the first vote since electoral laws changed thats a load a Record Number of women to campaign for a seat in local government in elfin and as has more now from colombo choosing members of three hundred forty two local government institutions observe us a voter turnout was higher than expected some districts reporting eighty five percent. Voters had a clear idea of what they wanted from their local representatives corruption is a big problem so somebody who is less corrupt somebody would say you cant tell and of course somebody with the return can do something for the community another voter said changes to the electoral system has made things easier to. Review system do so much more simple system for the water its a new mixed results system which candidate wins the most votes and which party has the most support the changes also included a quarter of twenty five percent for women this election monks a number of firsts the first time so many women have contested the first time votes are being counted in Polling Centers like the one behind me and the fust time election violence has been so low observers say there is a marked change in the conduct of campaigns and the election the main election organize a credits hard work main thing is real if you care good the people not to break the law through the Law Enforcement the law really. Conduct a pretty good. Despite being a local election which is usually about issues in local neighborhoods the campaign took on the flavor of a National Election prison might to polish city cena Prime Minister i know became a singer and the man they united to defeat by in the rajapaksa were heavily involved in the campaign travelling around the country to support their respective candidates the stakes for each of them are high and the results of this grassroots race will point towards the political board in the run up to the general election in two years and in el joins us live from the capital city colombo how close are we to the final results. Peter were hearing that many of the results have been counted but theres still a last minute tallying there obviously a process of sort of carry frank things where there are results challenge accounts challenge and that is happening but fairly shortly we should be hearing a full picture peter what are the main implications for the Central Government everything. The government is having a real reality check if we can describe it as such peter essentially its three since they took control of the National Government two parties two main parties coming together that of the president by policy center and the Prime Minister. To form a Coalition Government they got together to dispose the previous president Mahinda Rajapaksa and he is very much him that is responsible for this huge victory for the sri lanka put the john a parable in a political front that he put together to challenge the mainstream parties of the other two outside the Party Headquarters of that new political front of front that so far the results indicate have done really well given that it is challenging the stream the all the guard of Political Parties but a reflection of how people have become sort of discontent with the government which they voted in on promises that they would bring political change that they would do away with corruption and all of those things but that disappointment reflecting in the way the voters have cast their ballot and those results just filtering out today peter to start old god did you talk about them and feel threatened by this move or was it just a new reordering of the natural order of things there. Pretty much peter in the sense the threat will start sinking in shortly i mean the current government very much a coalition sort of a force as i told you before so different parties trying to come together pull together weve seen the cracks appearing over the last couple of sort of months as you know these two. Kind of Political Parties try to come together and now this new front its not a new political front it is very much the old faces the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa very much leading the campaign from the front very much centered on his sort of cult of his personality the mind that rajapaksa factor now the irony is that the rajapaksa still remains a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which is the party of the president but hes lent his name his face and his popularity which is still a force to be reckoned with to this new political front which set itself up to challenge the Coalition Government of the other two so what theyre saying is three years ago you know there was a message theyve come back now they reorganize this is that this is very much a wake up call that the people have spoken this is very much to be remembered that its a local Government Election so its about grassroots institutions and things like that but it is also a pointer to it is a way of a momentum that can begin politics is a strange thing but you know this is a start of a momentum which im sure this new political front as they say are very keen to capitalize on and move forward towards the National Elections in two years time peter thanks very much. Plus more still to come for your analysis here including these ones thousands marching against racism in the italian city where african migrants were shot. And the philippines president pushes to change the constitution critics say its a power grab. And i there is still quite cold for many of us in the southeast in parts of china the temperatures in shanghai during the day all too bad theyre getting to around seven or nine degrees but at night theyre still dropping below freezing so certainly feeling very cool for us for the south and