And filmmaker safa alahmad on the ground in yemen. I really wanted to go and see for myself, because so Little Information that is reliable comes out. Narrator on a dangerous journey into the heart of the conflict. gunfire investigating the devastating human toll and unexpected alliances on the battlefield. He just says quite casually these are al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Narrator two new reports one powerful hour of frontline frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. gunshots kilani i was very scared. This area is full of explosives, snipers, everything. So the only way to survive, to be safe there, is to keep your eyes open and looking in all directions. Not just for us, even for the fighters there, it was very scary. Narrator benghazi, libya. Reporter feras kilani has gained rare access to Libyan Forces fighting for control of the city against isis and other extremist groups. Kilani in the last year, isis managed to take whole districts inside benghazi, in the center of benghazi. And now isis is the most important power in these districts. Narrator feras has been here many times since the revolution in 2011. crowd chanting libya back then, celebrations in benghazi marked the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafis regime. But the armed groups that defeated the libyan dictator with the help of nato and the United States soon turned on each other, and the country descended into chaos. Then in 2012, islamist militants in benghazi launched an attack on the u. S. Consulate which killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three colleagues. Kilani when the American Ambassador was killed in the consulate attack, it was the moment where everyone recognized that the islamists are in charge of everything in benghazi. Narrator two years later, isis emerged in libya. Since then, the u. S. Military estimates that the group has doubled in size to as many as 6,000, recruiting fighters from abroad and other local islamist groups. Libya is now their biggest base outside syria and iraq. Feras is now in benghazi to see how the fight against isis is intensifying. Kilani this is the last point we can reach here in sabri district in benghazi. These buildings in front of us are secured by the libyan army, but beyond this line isis is still in charge of all of the area. Narrator feras is with a powerful militia which calls itself the benghazi antiterrorism unit. Its led by 38 yearold faraj quaim. His militia is one of many battling isis in the city. translated we use this building to observe the enemy. Its full of our fighters. Weve lost more than five men here. This is the front line. If you look over there, the enemy is less than 400 meters away. gunfire these are the brave men on the front lines. Narrator the militia is fighting a key battle for sabri district, a central part of the city near benghazis port. gunfire narrator isiss dominance in this area gives it access to a supply route by sea to the other parts of coastal libya which it controls. Kilani if you look at the libyan coast, were talking about 2,000 kilometers the libyan coast in the mediterranean at least 200 kilometers of it is under isis control. Narrator isis and other islamist militias deploy snipers near benghazis port and have deeply entrenched positions. Narrator the fighters say they are poorly equipped. There is currently a u. N. Ban on arms sales to libya. translated egypt gave us a small quantity of weapons, but its nothing compared to what isis has. Is it because they dont believe isis exists in libya . I swear to god, look at them, theyre right in front of you. On your way here someone shot at you. A sniper on the lookout, he doesnt care. All that matters to him is to shoot and kill. Narrator commander faraj says the lack of weapons makes defeating isis much harder. translated my soldiers are sacrificing themselves. Look at their weapons. They dont have enough ammunition. The main reason is the lack of resources in the hands of the libyan army, the ministries, and the units manning the front lines. Narrator libyas political situation is chaotic. There are rival governments, and military forces are divided along tribal and political lines. Isis has taken advantage of that and over the last year gained territory. At one point, hundreds of soldiers withdrew from the front line in a bitter dispute with the influential head of the libyan army, general khalifa haftar. General haftar has been attempting to bring all the militias fighting isis under his command. But many want to remain independent and accuse the general of trying to become libyas next dictator, a charge he denies. translated i dont deal with matters in the gaddafi way. He didnt pass on his methods to me. Were here to reassure and work for the people. We want stability for them. A person who doesnt have any ambition is not a normal person. To live a true life, you have to be ambitious. Narrator many of the militia leaders remain suspicious of the general. And commander faraj says the libyan army doesnt supply his forces. Feras asks the commander about the problems between the local militias and the libyan army. What got us to this stage is the political bickering. Differences between local leaders, the Army Leadership and the state leadership. The Army Leadership is not supposed to get involved in politics. Kilani its one of the most Important Reasons the army couldnt finish the islamists in benghazi, its because of this conflict inside the armys coalition. Its impossible to defeat isis within this situation. Narrator commander farajs militia heads into an area taken by isis last year. Suddenly, there is an explosion nearby. explosion narrator its a bomb dropped by a Libyan Air Force jet, targeting isis positions. It falls dangerously close. Because the militia and the Libyan Military dont coordinate with each other, theyre sometimes in each others line of fire. Kilani the air force has some kind of targets and they send fighter jets to strike them, but they dont know whos on the ground. Narrator that night, the soldiers set up camp near the front line. They failed to gain any ground during the day. translated their morale is low because were not advancing. Those not physically injured have been impacted mentally. This tough situation has left some of my men very distressed. One of my men survived an airstrike, but hes badly traumatized. Narrator its not just the fight against isis that is taking its toll. The divisions with the military are becoming more deadly. The fighters say that the Libyan Air Force recently bombed their position, mistaking them for isis. Six of them were killed. This fighter says he survived and shows his scars. Despite the obstacles, the men vow to continue the fight. translated my men are determined to liberate all of benghazi. We want to free this district so we can move on to the next one. If there was more support and unity between the forces, wed have advanced by now. Narrator the battle for benghazi has now been going on for over 18 months. More than 100,000 residents have been displaced by the fighting in the center of the city. Kilani benghazi suffered a lot from bombs. Its difficult for those people who live at the front lines. They are desperate. Narrator some of the displaced now live in this abandoned school. Jamal warfali says he and his family fled their home in 2014. Narrator many schools in the heart of benghazi have been closed due to the fighting, but this is one of a few that has reopened. Its a dangerous journey to classes for the students. Feras meets the head teacher, fauzia mukhtar abeid, at the only safe entrance to the school. The entrance is. Still near the front line . Yes, still near the front line, the other door, but this one is safer, and the students live in this area. Kilani and despite all these conditions, the parents of the kids, theyre still keen to send their kids . Yes, yes, they want to study. They dont want to lose this year just like the year before. Narrator there are currently 200 children in classes here. As well as regular lessons, a social worker speaks to the students. Kilani i remember i was in one of the classrooms and we can hear the fighting just a few hundred meters away from us and none of the kids or the teacher noticed this. It says a lot how they get this kind of normal feeling in such places after a year and a half. Not just here but all over the area. Narrator back at his headquarters, militia leader faraj quaim is preparing the next operation against isis. Commander faraj says they need all the help they can get. translated isis is more advanced than us. Whether in the field or in their agility. They move around in smart ways. If stability is not restored in libya, none of the neighboring countries will be stable. From egypt to tunisia, and from italy to the whole of europe. Narrator in recent weeks, forces under the banner of the Libyan National army have dislodged isis from a number of benghazis neighborhoods. Some residents are tentatively returning, despite the ongoing fighting. Kilani it is going to be very hard to defeat isis in the future. I think libya might be within months or one or two years one of the nightmares for the west. Narrator the United States and nato are now developing plans to once again intervene in libya and help the military and the militias unite. But isis is continuing to recruit new fighters and its black flag still flies over pars of the center of the city. Narrator coming up next on frontlinjournalist and filmmaker safa alahmad reports from a strategic city in yemen under siege. When i arrived in taiz after being smuggled up the mountain, i saw a different city. It was empty and haunted and broken in a way i was hoping i broken in a way i was hoping i wouldnt see. Narrator journalist safa alahmad has been reporting on yemen for the past six years, from the rise of al qaeda to the outbreak of civil war to the military intervention by a Coalition Led by saudi arabia. Once a key american ally in the war on terror, yemen has been torn apart. With yemens future uncertain, safa is heading into the country to see the human toll of the war. The journey takes a day and a half on a merchant ship from djibouti. She arrives at the southern port of aden, where she had been a year earlier, before the war had reached the city. Safa alahmad the human cost of this war on yemen is frightening. It was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful city that was already suffering and hardly keeping itself together be completely decimated by the war, especially the old streets that we used to walk in and the ports and all that, to see it so destroyed. The reality of the war starts to sink in. Narrator yemen began unraveling two years ago, when a rebel group called the houthis pushed south from their northern stronghold, trying to gain control of the country. The houthis soon seized the capital, sanaa, and deposed the president. They posted their motto in the streets god is great. Death to america. Death to israel. God curse the jews. Victory to islam. The houthis and many defecting army units then continued south, taking over most of yemen. By 2015, the group reached aden, igniting months of intense fighting. gunfire narrator abu mishaal and his fellow soldiers tried to defend the city against the houthis. on video allahu akbar explosion gunfire gunfire narrator with the city under attack, saudi arabia joined in concerned about the houthis tio their arch rival, iran. They lea coalition of of neighboring countries with support from the. explosion narrator by last summer, the houthis were driven out of aden, and the ruined city became yemens temporary capital. Alahmad when i came back, people in aden were just starting to recover. A lot of people reopened their shops. Business was as usual. People went back to fishing and to opening their restaurants. But also what you could feel was very palpable in the city the fear of the unknown, of what could go wrong now. Narrator since forcing the houthis out of aden, the Saudi Coalition has tried to push the rebels back north and reinstate the government in sanaa. But the advance has been slow, and the two sides remain deadlocked at the strategic city of taiz. Alahmad taiz is strategically important because whoever controls the city will have an easier time moving in and controlling and maintaining sanaa. Narrator the fighting has effectively cut off taiz, yemens thirdlargest city, from the rest of the world. Alahmad i really wanted to go and see for myself because so Little Information that is reliable comes out from yemen. And this is one of the major challenges the different factions involved in the war dont necessarily want journalists there. Narrator a group of yemeni fighters working with the Saudi Coalition agrees to take safa to the front line near taiz. Abdul barri is the commander. loud gunfire narrator abdul barris men have spent months trying to break the houthis siege of taiz. gunfire narrator with heavy cover fire, abdul barri sends a small team of men up to the houthi position. But the team is pinned down. Narrator he calls for help from the coalition forces. phone ringing alahmad i was filming on the front line, i think, for over an hour or so, and then suddenly, this apc just drives right in to where im sitting, and the uae soldiers come out of it, and i just freeze because when i arrived, one of the first things i did is to go visit the uae forces and ask them officially for permission to film with them. They never gave such permission. And so i try to, you know, blend in so that nobody would notice me, and i zoom in on them and i start filming. Alahmad since the war started, and especially when the siege on taiz started, there were a lot of promises from the coalition of breaking the siege. But it was months and months, and by the time i got there, i think its a fair critique to say that the war was going extremely slowly for the liking of a lot of yemenis. Narrator elsewhere along the frontline, a Different Group of fighters spots safa and starts shouting. men shouting alahmad he just says quite casually, these are al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and he referred to them by their local name, which is ansar alsharia. He revealed what is considered an open secret in the front lines, that they had been fighting with all the different factions the yemeni factions and the coalition against the houthis. Narrator al qaeda has long been a dominant force in yemen. Safa reported on their presence here years before the civil war. Alahmad i first embedded with al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012, when they had actually controlled huge parts of south yemen and declared it an Islamic State before there was such a thing as an Islamic State. Narrator the group was labed by the u. S. As one of the most s branches of al qaeda and had been a target of repeated by strikes by American Drones and the yemeni air force. Narrator but now, even as the drone strikes have continued, al qaeda has joined the fight against the houthis on the same side as the United States. Alahmad this is why its so difficult to explain the war on yemen, because there are so many enemies that find themselves on the same front lines fighting the other enemy. A lot of people who wanted to fight the houthis that didnt necessarily agree with al qaeda did join them because that was a ready front for them to go out and fight. And that grew with the ranks of al qaeda, and so the situation only got worse from 2012 till now. Alahmad and frankly, the fragile alliances that have been built, the only common denominator between them has been fighting the houthis. I think a lot of people worry about what will happfter there is no more houthi to fight, as in how those different factions are going to deal with each other after the war is over. Narrator after weeks of trying, safa finally reaches the outskirts of taiz. The only way into the city itself is a treacherous Mountain Path used by smugglers. Convoys of donkeys and camels are the citys only lifeline, carrying food, oil, wood, medicine, and weapons. Alahmad after youve survived and gone up the mountain, then you have to have a car meet you at the top of the mountain, and then you cross another very dangerous area. Mortars can hit at any time. The snipers can get you at any time as well, so you have to be very careful about those things. Narrator she enters the city at night. Houthi fighters are all around taiz, and anything moving in the dark is a target. gunfire alahmad ive been in taiz many times over the years. It is a beautiful city, extremely vibrant. It is considered the cultural heart of yemen. And when i arrived in taiz after being smuggled up the mountain, i saw a different city. It was empty and haunted and broken in a way i was hoping i wouldnt see. Narrator an estimated 400,000 residents have fled taiz half the citys population. explosion dog barking those who remain are at the mercy of whoever controls the hilltops surrounding the city. For months, the houthis grip has been unbreakable. Mohammad is one of many young residents who have joined the fight against the houthis. Narrator from his bunker, mohammad overlooks one of the citys main entrances, where residents have to go through checkpoints maintained by the two sides. Alahmad taiz has two main entrances into the city, from the east and from the west, and the houthis have controlled those two main entrances and have encircled the city, so they dictated what food got in, if you were able to get gas in, or petrol, or medicine.