Firefighters struggled to combat australias catastrophic. Tit for tat expulsions at secret missions and a run away form of president the escalating diplomatic route between mexico spain and bolivia. On paul recent i with all the sport including footballs lawmakers stepping in to review the use of Video Technology as friends and players say its ruining the game. Iraqs National Security council has condemned american airstrikes on a powerful shia group and has warned it will rethink its relationship with the u. S. Led Coalition Fighting eisel american warplanes hit 3 hizbollah camps in iraq and 2 in syria killing at least 27 fighters and injuring 51 the group is allied with iran and has vowed revenge. You know that if we are warning the United States as we warned before that theyre illegal presence means they are standing against the iraqi people and the iraqi people have the right to confront them with all types of resistance iraqs Prime Minister has called the attacks a breach of sovereignty while iran says it terrorism. Is part of the Popular Mobilisation forces who along with the iraqi army helped to defeat our so the u. S. Says the strikes were a decisive response to threats by iranian backed forces against american personnel. And unprecedented confrontation between the u. S. And iran on iraqi soil for the 1st time u. S. Airstrikes targeting the bases of an iranian backed armed group killing and injuring dozens the operation in response to a series of rockets that struck military bases where u. S. Personnel are stationed a u. S. Contractor was killed in the most recent attack in care coke what we did was take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months which is that we will not stand for this law of the republic of iran to take actions to put american men and women in jeopardy the type hezbollah is part of the Popular Mobilization forces a Paramilitary Group set up to fight i so its integrated into iraqs armed forces the u. S. Has accused some factions in the pm of taking orders from the head on rather than baghdad until recently if the u. S. And the pm are fought side by side against isis following isis territorial defeat 2 years ago the u. S. Retained around 5000 troops in country to support Iraqi Security forces as they search for i saw sleeper cells hiding in deserts one of those clearing operations coincided with the u. S. Mission against the type that i know as an air base here in western Anbar Province is an important launching pad for operations against beisel but the. Yes and rocket attacks against bases where u. S. Personnel are stationed including i know last an air base in early december could hamper operations raising fears of a proxy war between the u. S. And iran on iraqi soil in an unusual announcement following the attack the u. S. Publicly blamed the type hezbollah the Iraqi Government hasnt attribute it blame but has tightened security. Said the very increased security measures were. Cooperation with Coalition Forces there are surveillance patrols and additional troops to secure the outer perimeter of a search to protect the base investigations are continuing on to know but its not completed. Promises of investigations have done little to reassure the u. S. None of the governments probes into any of the previous rocket attacks have been published the analysts say the details are well known and. I think that the iraqi joint Operation Command in iraq intelligence as many details about the people who attacked the k one basing cook Iraqi Government was confused because the pressure of could keep his blood is deeply entrenched in the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi Government and thats why they decided to keep in line with iran and the iranian political parties. The Iraqi Government divided and weekend after 3 months of protests demanding sweeping political change has called on all sides to seize any unilateral actions neither the us nor the appear to be listening both have vowed to take action setting the stage for further escalation Simona Fulton Al Jazeera but that gave responders in washington d. C. The National Security council says its going to resign gets relationship with the u. S. Led Coalition Force the u. S. Response. Well the u. S. Certainly hopes that that will not be the case u. S. Officials that have given background briefings on monday have not directly responded to that but they have been saying that this is not an attack on iraq or the Iraqi Government they say this is definitely a retaliatory strike by the u. S. For what they say are attacks rocket attacks that are coming within iraq from armed groups backed by iran other u. S. Officials have said that they have counted as many as 11 rocket attacks from iran back to groups within iraq against Iraqi Military installations where there are u. S. Personnel in recent days one on friday that killed a u. S. Contractor and wounded 4 u. S. Service members so from the washington perspective from the pentagon from the white house senior officials there saying that these rocket attacks now on sunday were in retaliation to those attacks and that they hope that this deescalate the situation moving forward now there certainly becomes an issue of iraqi sovereignty here without a doubt but the americans say that they have gone to the iraqis several times and said you must stop these rocket attacks that are on your coming onto your bases that are putting american lives at risk the americans perspective they basically say the iraqis were not able to stop it so the americans said we will and thats what they did or they hope that theyre doing with these latest strikes in syria and within iraq and theres talk of new u. N. Say u. S. Sanctions a big money gets iran any truth in the. Yes yes Senior State Department official did say that the u. S. Was going to be strongly considering new sanctions against the iraq in 2020 which is just a couple days from now. But this should not be a surprise the u. S. Has by some. Between 801000 different sanctions that the u. S. Has leveled against iran just since 2017 under the trumpet ministration an incredible number of the last sanctions by the u. S. Were just less than 2 weeks ago against a rainy and judge so sanctions are the critical part of u. S. Policy or trumpet ministration policy that theyre calling a socalled maximum pressure against iran it starts with sanctions so its not not surprising that the u. S. Is considering more sanctions against iran but it also is with these military strikes as well but the sanctions are really the key part of it you could probably expect more coming up in the coming days perhaps but in summary though theres not a lot more to sanction iran already have already 8028000 Different Things sanctioned. Revolutionary guard senior government officials and their family members a whole list of sanctions already on iran not much more to sanction but the u. S. Certainly keeping that door open gabriels on to thank you very much indeed i said bagels in tehran he says iran has denied any link to previous strikes against u. S. Bases. Well iran so far has just responded with words president rouhani was speaking earlier this morning he did address the airstrikes what happened was the Foreign Office spokesperson issued a statement they condemned the airstrike said it was a manifestation of terrorism they called in the United States to respect iraqs sovereignty independence and territorial integrity they also said that the United States wasnt interested in fighting isis because the positions targeted those groups targeted had caused damage to isis in the past but they also said that these attacks showed negligence on behalf of the United States and they should accept the consequences of that also later on in the day the government spokesman issued a statement and he denied that iran is behind any of the attacks on United States bases and said that these kinds of allegations without evidence are not a justification for bombing people so the response out of iran has been a bit slow because iraqi groups responding 1st his belied lebannon responded and then we heard something from iran but what will be interesting is how his will respond because and what would United States will do next because the United States has said iran is behind this group they have close links and how how much will it take before the United States turns its attention to iran. Well said earlier levy is a senior Teaching Fellow in the department of politics and International Studies at Sarah University in london he joins us now thanks for coming interested to go back to these strikes in the 1st place to i mean the u. S. Has said they were in response to the killing of a u. S. Contractor but it you see it as part of a broader strategic move from from the states are they going to change what theyre doing possibly is a part of a broader policy one thing is what is happening on the ground civically in the west asia is also its to some extent a symptom of president trans lack of cohesive Foreign Policy towards the west asia and also the timing of the strikes are very important to dont its because President Trump is facing president president ial election in 2020 and also unprecedented impeachment so in a kind of to some extent from my point of view it may have some domestic purposes for domestic audience except that i suppose in the in the past hes always maintained that he wants to reduce the american presence and reduce involvement in involvement in the middle east so how would that play with that you think well the President Trump as i mentioned doesnt have any cohesive Foreign Policy towards middle east so its quite fluctuated at some point with drawing from syria and. Later on is trying to. Conduct some military actions in the region so if it is if there is an escalation what kind of response do you do you think iran will have to this i mean that there they are acting through these various proxies in the region do you think that they will respond to the to the us extra well this strikes happened in iraq and is defined by states in back that as a violation of iraqs sovereignty and territorial into integrity so i think their response will be more spontaneous and localized by the Iraqi Government and iraqi forces rather than by. None because still there is no direct conflict between tehran and washington as such and do you think that the u. S. Will want to escalate things with iran i mean that they so far you know as you we mentioned in the past various attacks since for instance the Saudi Oil Fields and the attacks on the tankers in the gulf that there was no response from the u. S. This time there has been a response if if that is then reacted to by iran do you think things will escalate well its already escalated because the strikes is also bringing some high risk for escalation and is now united says directly in conflict with the shia militias they have a conflict and the clash between United States and the shia forces is not something new to happen from the very beginning after 2003 but they may get more escalated by that miscalculation that happened but as i mentioned is washington may not be very interested in direct conflict but because of the domestic policies and because of the president lection i think President Trump is trying to flex its muscles and is showing that hes on top of the Foreign Policy which 34 years ago. The background of his Foreign Policy showed that is opposites thank you very much indeed to trannie and have a thank you. Russian and Iranian Foreign minister is a condemning the u. S. Military action in iraq and syria so i guess our office has to have a german sorry for the talks in moscow salvaging the 2015 you can deal was also high on the agenda it is just conflicts across the middle east and so they looking to increase collaboration which could well be cook despite the fact that americans are thousands of miles away from their borders under a pretext of defending their right they have drowned the people of iraq in syria in blood the recent actions by americans in iraq are unacceptable iran and russia put efforts to establish peace both in syria and in iraq the cooperation between our countries within the talks is proof of that. Still to come on now to. The growing resurgence of violence in the Central African republic we speak to the u. N. Peacekeeping forces. A gesture of political goodwill for a jailed Catalan Leader spains state attorney recommends his release. And the green Football Team taking the next big step paul explained. And hes 23 people have been killed in a rebel attack in eastern democratic public of congo fighters from the allied to Democratic Forces and a tourist on group an overnight raid on a tina 800 kilometers northwest of the city of beni there in several protests and many in recent weeks with locals accusing un peacekeepers of failing to protect them against rebel attacks. Has been following the developments from nairobi and says people are walking to benny to seek refuge. The situation on the ground is not competent officials warn the death toll would likely rise because the killing spree went on for hours and many people still arent accounted for people say when the rebels entered the village they went from house to house putting everything in the pot killing everyone they saw including women and children people are now walking to binny town a walk that will take them hours when they get there they plan to sleep in churches or with family a. D. F. Rebels are from uganda but they will operate in the d. R. See that partly diaz for more than 20 years terrorizing the population people say theyre angry they dont feel protected by the army by the un and by the government they say the army took too long to get to them hours to eastern joining the attack by the time the army got to the village or the rebels had gone they say when it comes United Nations they feel that the un is doing nothing to help them a few weeks ago there were protests people demanding the un leave the country because they thought the u. N. Is doing nothing to be taken. Mcginty the tax from these rebels when it comes to government that people feel the government of kinshasa i have marginalized the country for years if you look at the road infrastructure is really poor is not in much on the ground in terms of infrastructure so a lot of people very angry and they say that they fear theyll be more attacks because they used to it and when this to be is an attack they feel theres no way to run but look after themselves. Tension is high in the capital of Central African republic at least 40 people have been killed in benghazi during days of fighting between market traders and groups and the United Nations has sent more troops to keep the peace now a deadline has been issued to gunmen to surrender their weapons and address reports from. Traders in the p. Q. 5 Neighborhood Market count their losses and repealed while reconstruction work starts more trouble is threatened vigilantes who are protecting traders in the community are no longer welcome. To the traders have set up a Crisis Committee which is empowered to declare war on the armed groups we gave them a 40 hour ultimatum to surrender their weapons and reintegrate into the community they dont surrender we will resume hostilities with them Government Authority has to be restored in a p. K. 5 neighborhood. That threat is whats making people here in the us fighting started on tuesday when an armed militia man was killed when he refused to pay a shopkeeper for an item you wanted his group retaliated and over the course of 3 days 40 people were killed and dozens of in hospital. 40 shops in the market what destroyed people in this market in the future 5 neighborhood say militias have long been exporting traders here and the actual violence that broke out last week one of the 1st in 2008 when the United Nations mission in Central Africa attempted to stop extortion it failed by the time its operations is over more than 40 people i mean you know. The United Nations mission here is struggling to keep the peace more troops are patrolling the area but they may not be able to deal with a major attack the main issue is that there is no lookout forces police and military then we are also applies to sent. You know the russian army base in the area our fosters conducting battles. But i dont we dont have enough force there with the need to in