Point clear at the top of the table. Hello were looking at iran today a dramatic escalation of violence in what is already been 2 months of chaos and antigovernment unrest there was an attack by an unidentified gunman on protesters in baghdad thats killed at least 23 people raising new security concerns they stormed one of the main protest sites in square on friday nights listen 24 hours after vast gunfire was heard again in baghdad sending people running for cover and then what looks like a related event reports that more total solders home was hit by a drone strike however the influential shia cleric is said to have been away at the time also jabari following events for us in baghdad where protesters are demanding protection after one of the most violent nights in recent weeks. Manic among the crowds of protesters as gunfire echoes around central baghdad. Moments earlier gunmen pulled up in cars and trucks at the building where protesters have faced themselves since the latest series of antigovernment rallies began in october. Medics struggle to treat the Dozens Injured this is what is left behind after what survivors are describing as a massacre. Lovesick. They were wearing civilian clothes this is the bullets they stole to people i dont know what kind of islam this is these people believe in i dont even know where they took the dead bodies the 16 of us i mean the 60 to 70 men came asking us to leave this area they showed us their knives and guns and walked us out i heard screams and saw them killing people throwing them over the building they told me they are gangs. Sources tell al jazeera the call from these demonstrators for protection was answered by volunteers from Soraya Al Salam which is part of the southern us party the shia muslim group is led by cleric my father also other hours before the shooting the United States imposed sanctions on 3 of the groups leaders early on saturday in a district of not just province south of baghdad and an identified armed drone attack the souther family compound the cleric wasnt home at the time of the attack the threat of attacks on protesters in baghdad has been a concern supporters of the iranian backed housefull xabi paramilitary coalition arrived in their thousands in fact as theyre here square on thursday carrying pictures of iraqs leading shiite cleric grand ayatollah ali sistani during friday prayers sistan his representatives read a letter from the highest shia cleric in iraq calling on Iraqi Security to protect the peaceful protests and he stressed the need to form a new government without foreign interference more than 400 iraqis have been killed and thousands injured in the past 2 months demonstrators in cities across the country have been demanding more jobs less corruption and sectarianism changes in the electoral laws and an overhaul of the entire political system Prime Minister he resigned last week but remains as a carrot taker his replacement. It is yet to be announced as tensions increase here protesters keep asking the same question where other Government Forces which are supposed to protect them a question that is becoming increasingly difficult to answer as the political and sectarian allegiances continue to create further division between iraqis dorsetshire pari aljazeera backed out. When i get some more on this with someone of the correspondent in baghdad someone to tell us a little bit about response to this attack not just inside iran but coming from the International Community well there has been widespread condemnation of this attack from various western nations as well as the United Nations condemning the attack and asking the government to investigate and hold those responsible to account the response of the government to the contrary has been rather slow Prime Minister and a lot of the mother who remains a caretaker has not spoken out here and president barham salih issued a statement 21 hours after the incident condemning the attack and promising those responsible would be held account he blamed the attack on criminal elements are not attributing responsibility to this attack just yet the ministry of interior said started an investigation and the Parliament Today also said it would be holding an extraordinary session tomorrow to some more on the military commanders to find out what exactly happened we also had a new statement come out just now from the Popular Mobilization forces which is a december a large group of armed groups some of them with links to iran who basically said that they operate under the control of the joint Operations Command and this statement appears to try to refute allegations that some of these groups may be responsible for the attack. Simone i just want to go on a slight tangent here but i think its still probably related and that is a statement im looking at here from the u. S. Led coalition it is about recent attacks on iraqi bases where u. S. Soldiers are stationed can you tell us a little more and how this sort of folds into the rest of the violence going on. Well its uncertain whether these attacks that weve been seeing on bases where u. S. Soldiers are base are at all related to the protest its certain that there has been a spike in rocket attacks on these locations weve had 8 attacks between 28. 00 and december 5th now its uncertain what the link might be there are officials inside the government also among the Popular Mobilization forces who accuse the United States of supporting the protests all there is no evidence for that what is unusual in this statement is that the u. S. Led coalition actually attribute it responsibility for one of these attacks on december 3rd on. This is not something that usually happens usually when these attacks occur that Iraqi Security forces are able to go to these locations that usually find remnants of the rockets that were fired but we dont ever really hear any statements or results of the investigations of who might be responsible and in this specific statement the u. S. Led coalition actually blamed hezbollah for the december 3rd attack this is a of course one of the groups under the Popular Mobilization of forces with close links to iran who has had quite a hostile stance towards the u. S. Presence here in iraq now the question is why it released this statement at this moment and of course we can only speculate on this but it is possible that the u. S. Is growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of response by the Iraqi Government to really investigate these attacks and to bring the groups that are responsible to work out its also possible that the u. S. Wants to increase pressure on iran which has had. Great influence during these protests so it could be also a way to try to pressure iran and to try to basically increase the space for u. S. Influence in iraq thank you for a similar fortune in baghdad at the thought of me was a Legal Advisor to the National Council for iraqi opposition he told us the demands of the protesters are becoming more credible every day. But you mans are being were crystallized as as time went by i think the calls for the are routing an entire political system that was founded post 2003 invasion of iraq is now for the people falling on the ears of people who are understanding and appreciating and sometimes accepting what these protesters are saying. We are talking about an entire political system that is corrupt and that is backed by our political factions most of those on political actions were accused by the protesters yesterday of carrying out the attacks on them so the question is being asked how good how can a corrupt system how can a corrupt system corrupt elements. Correctly reform it that is where the difficulty lies and thats where the light thats where the movement is thats where the grievances are hounded and hence i think the the amount that the entire political system is up and completely replaced under under the supervision of an internationally i need your national wanting preferably in the United Nations it is actually a very credible demand to other news and f. B. I. Agents are now questioning 10 saudi nationals in connection with fridays shooting at a u. S. Naval base Saudi Air Force officer Mohammed Saeed al sharia and he killed 3 students who were training with him before he himself was killed and a terrorist detectives are investigating the motive more now with mike hanna is following this one from washington anything more mike i think only a few hours ago we were saying 6 saudis the numbers going up. Indeed yes sir note also within that report is contain the fact that a number of saudi nationals are still being looked for in other words it does appear that there are more than the 10 who are in detention at present who may be involved in some way in this shooting so certainly these details are implying that there could have been some form of conspiracy now the Associated Press also reports that one of the saudi nationals actually filmed the attack from outside the building in which the classrooms were based in with the classrooms in which the shooting took place it quotes a u. S. Official as saying as well that the gunman who was killed in the attack also held a party the night before at which a number of videos of mess killings were watched by him and some of his allies or friends so these details emerging obviously giving some indication of what the motive was inching towards a possibility that this was indeed an act of terror and the possibility to emerging that it could have been part of a wider conspiracy than just a lone gunman here plenty more to come on this one i think is in there mike hanna in washington thank you for the u. S. President donald trump and thanked iran after washington and tehran exchanged prisoners a swap facilitated by the swiss government the iranians released chinese american jew wang who faced spying charges after being detained in 2016 in exchange the u. S. Released iranian scientists must sued so many who flew back to iran with the foreign minister Mohammad Zarif or. Who says this prisoner swap was actually in the works for a while. Parmenter divides reve has been talking about a possible swap for a while back in september he had said that he had offered exchange of prisoners but it had to be for an iranian he said that as foreign minister he couldnt just go to the courts here in iran and ask for the release of sure where want. To be for an iranian that iranian was the Stem Cell Research a prominent stem cells to research so the money that he was detained last year in october after u. S. Airports and accused of violating u. S. Sanctions and seeking to transfer a growth hormone to iran without a license now sure wont hes a student american citizen and he was detained back in 2016 accused of espionage found guilty in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years here in iran now Princeton University where she is a researcher his wife and the u. S. Government maintained that he was here for Research Purposes here to study the. Heres whats coming up for you on this news hour. Dancing to the beat of their own drum lebanese women demands new bride summit political turmoil also education under occupation is ready forces move against students in the occupied west bank. And boards the boxer hoping his tactic of scaling down will boost his chances of regaining the heavyweight worlds touching. Fighters loyal to the libyan un recognized government say they have shot down a fighter jet belonging to warlord how the 4 hafter the incident took place near the western coastal city of zawiya and mahmud up the one head has more from tripoli. Brigadier general ham would ignore the spokes men of the army led by the u n a government of National Accord said that their forces managed to shut down pro has to make 32. 00 fighter jet. In southern tripoli but apparently the jet was captured actually in the fighter of the pilot was captured by rebels from the city of zawiya apparently the fighter jet was hit by progovernment fighters in southern tripoli namely around. A military camp in southern tripoli but it just landed in their neighboring get western coastal city of zawiya and activists from the city of a zawiyah have been posting get pictures of what they call the wreckage of the fighter jet and also of the pilots home they say a libyan pilot loyal to the world plea for have to do with the name of. Muhammad we know that this is not the 1st time after the fighter jets being shot down by proGovernment Forces but we also know that the fighter jets wars have been very crucial in this battle for the capital tripoli and the Government Forces are accusing have those fighter jets of targeting residential areas several times since the beginning of the fighting back in april. Now at least 19 civilians have been killed including 5 children in russian and Syrian Government airstrikes they targeted 2 villages in the province of the last remaining rebel held area in syria run 25000. 00 syrians have fled the providence province in the past week alone due to an escalation in airstrikes were going to talk tomorrow in kabul about this director of policy analysis at the absentia for research and policy studies marwan thank you for your time. We have been saying the last rebel held stronghold in syria for so long now im wondering what is it that is meaning that the syrians and the russians havent taken this back fully yet and that there is still this pocket holding on. I think the reason for that actually is there are there are there are 4000000 syrians who are on a d. And i believe the russians are very clear of actually enough to stage an all out onslaught against our province this is on one hand on the other hand because that would indeed provoke an hour to clear by that and from an article by the International Community on the other one. Future of is very much related to the understanding between the russians and the turks who have already signed 2 agreements concerning the future of their latest one actually it was last september when the 2 countries tried to revive the suci agreement in which he agreed to establish Something Like a normal Demilitarized Zone but i think the Syrian Regime and its National Allies are trying right now in fact to gain control of the mean roads between. And also between lattakia and their body out of mainly interested in beginning control of the m 4 and the m 5 more thought away between how up on one hand how unlucky on the other hand. When i mentioned also a 1000000 trucks in the 25000 syrians who have left. Just in the past week and you mentioned there are millions in the whole province where are they going because so many people from syria will have been displaced from different parts of the country a lot of them are probably ended up in where do they go from there and are they safe while they are trying actually to flee. The area which is already under control which is administered mainly by the Syrian Opposition and the turkish government and if it is shield. On one hand and on the Olive Branch Operation on the other hand you know he has launched 2 Major Military operations in which many actually to control Something Like 4000 secret syrian territories over the past couple of years the fierce one actually was in 2016 that is the Euphrates Shield in which he managed to expend the icily fighters as we. See a Democratic Forces fighters from that from that part of syria and they have also launched another military operation in a free in. Operation in which also the managed to expel the. Syria Democratic Forces from that part of syrian territories so most of the syrians who are fleeing adlib actually are moving north wards towards these area which is under contract now moment oblon always a pleasure thank you for your time thank you. Now in lebanon thousands of women of marched in the capital beirut to protest against Sexual Harassment women are fighting to change a system they say has been unjust to them and they are reports the protest movement has also given them a new platform to raise their voices against sectarian politics. They are speaking out in solidarity with those who recently gathered the courage to do so a flash mob was organized by lebanese women to support others who have been sexually abused and harassed dozens have broken their silence in the past few weeks since the start of the socalled october revolution in a society where the victim and not the rapist is condemned this is a challenge to the norms of this revolution has given strength to many many many women and the ban on. The women make up including ourselves about something thats been happening to us that the government has not been taking into consideration even believe an antiestablishment movement against the ruling elite has given these women a new platform like other lebanese they are calling for an end to corruption unemployment Better Living conditions and an overhaul of the political system there are so many discriminatory laws against women and im going to just state the main source of the problem its the fact that we have no civil courts for personal status so basically there are really just courts thats run our xers lebanon is home to many religious sects whose leaders preside over personal domestic issues such as marriage and divorce women have. Been vocal rol