:00:00. > :00:21.Welcome to Reporters. From the world's newsroom, we send out
:00:22. > :00:27.correspondents to bring you the best stories from across the globe. In
:00:28. > :00:31.this week 's programme, we're with half a dozen men trapped by ISIS on
:00:32. > :00:34.three sides. The road to Baghdad ` as Iraqi
:00:35. > :00:42.militants marched on the capital, Paul Wood joined forces fighting
:00:43. > :00:46.back against their advance. The peshmerga thought they had secured
:00:47. > :00:49.this place. But they have just been told 75 vehicles with ISIS fighters
:00:50. > :00:55.are making their way here to try to cut them off. With Iraq on the brink
:00:56. > :01:00.of civil war. Lyse Doucet asks Hamid Karzai whether Afghanistan faces a
:01:01. > :01:03.similar fate. Operation Predator, Angus Crawford
:01:04. > :01:04.reports on the global online trade in child sex abuse, which police say
:01:05. > :01:19.is now out of control. One giant leap for the Isle of Man,
:01:20. > :01:29.Mikey reports on a third era of space in Britain's new cosmic
:01:30. > :01:32.frontier. I'm sitting in the Russian space capsule, all in a hangar in
:01:33. > :01:40.the Isle of Man. It is quite bizarre.
:01:41. > :01:44.Sectarian conflict in Iraq threatened to trigger a wider
:01:45. > :01:51.catastrophe. Sunni militant cold their way through the country. The
:01:52. > :01:55.militant from ISIS continued their band on the capital. After taking
:01:56. > :01:59.Iraq's second city, Mosul, the night before. President Obama considered
:02:00. > :02:04.airstrikes as the Prime Minister, Nouri al`Maliki told the BBC he felt
:02:05. > :02:13.abandoned by the rest of the world. At the height of the militant
:02:14. > :02:18.advance, Paul Wood said this report. East of Baghdad, a strategically
:02:19. > :02:21.vital battle is being fought. These are Kurdish forces, they are trying
:02:22. > :02:29.to help the Iraqi army stop ISIS from marching on the capital. This
:02:30. > :02:36.is Jalula, the next town is in the hands of ISIS. The Kurds believe
:02:37. > :02:41.there are a small amount of foreign jihadis backed by about 600 Sunni
:02:42. > :02:43.tribal fighters. At the Kurdish base, the general begs a Sunni sheik
:02:44. > :02:51.to change sides. He asks them to abandon ISIS to
:02:52. > :02:58.avoid the bloodshed that is surely coming. It does not work. The Kurds
:02:59. > :03:04.know they have to stop ISIS here or the jihadis will go into the nearby
:03:05. > :03:09.town of Baquba. The Iraqi army is making a desperate stand there. It
:03:10. > :03:15.is the last big town before the capital. The Kurds send
:03:16. > :03:17.reinforcements to the frontline. We stayed behind in Jalula. The town is
:03:18. > :03:41.secure, they say. Down! They spot movement. Three or four
:03:42. > :03:45.gunmen. Come with me! Down here! Bullets seem to come in from two or
:03:46. > :03:50.three directions at once. Snipers, they say.
:03:51. > :03:56.The peshmerga thought they had secured this place. They have just
:03:57. > :04:03.been told of 75 vehicles of ISIS fighters making their way here to
:04:04. > :04:06.try and cut them off. The battle is going backwards and forwards. Things
:04:07. > :04:10.are still very fluid here. We are with half a dozen men are trapped
:04:11. > :04:18.with ISIS on three sides. You need to find the most senior commander
:04:19. > :04:22.that you can find. Can you hear me? There is growing panic. They think
:04:23. > :04:29.the jihadis are coming in through the back of the building. They are
:04:30. > :04:42.right there, he says. They are behind us. Can't you see them?
:04:43. > :04:53.A man was shot through the leg, he survived. Eventually, the fighting
:04:54. > :04:58.starts to die down. The cause was probably just a few gunmen left
:04:59. > :05:03.behind by ISIS in Jalula. It was not a mass attack the Kurdish troops
:05:04. > :05:07.feared. But it is in skirmishes like this in small towns on the road to
:05:08. > :05:19.the capital that the fate of Baghdad may be decided.
:05:20. > :05:26.The violence has pushed the Middle East to the brink of war. President
:05:27. > :05:32.Assad's forces are not only battling extremists like ISIS but also more
:05:33. > :05:41.audit groups. One of them is the free Syrian Army which is leading
:05:42. > :05:45.the fight around the capital. Jeremy Bowen crossed from Damascus for this
:05:46. > :05:50.report. When supporters of as an aside want
:05:51. > :05:56.to celebrate, the race around the massacres as if Syria has won the
:05:57. > :06:00.World Cup. `` Damascus. In their world, their president is the man
:06:01. > :06:18.who stands between them and the extremist of ISIS and Al Qaeda.
:06:19. > :06:20.But just 20 minutes away from the streets of central Damascus, there
:06:21. > :06:24.are Syrians who see their country very differently. This is the road
:06:25. > :06:27.to Qaboun, one of the suburbs of the city that are held by armed rebels.
:06:28. > :06:32.This place has been fought over for close to three years. On the rebel
:06:33. > :06:39.side is the Free Syria Army. There is supposed to be a local ceasefire
:06:40. > :06:42.but it is fragile. TRANSLATION: This is the main road
:06:43. > :06:48.to Qaboun. The Syrian army used to be 50 metres away and now they are
:06:49. > :06:54.150 metres from here. How well is the ceasefire holding? TRANSLATION:
:06:55. > :06:59.Not very well. You can hear the clashes.
:07:00. > :07:05.In this dusty, broken place, only small fragments are left of the
:07:06. > :07:10.lives people used to have here. They keep the cemetery for the war dead
:07:11. > :07:15.green and well watered. Why did you become a fighter? TRANSLATION: To
:07:16. > :07:21.defend our families. The regime is attacking us. There is no freedom in
:07:22. > :07:26.our country. As long as Bashar Al`Assad stays, we will keep
:07:27. > :07:31.fighting. Some civilians have stayed, despite
:07:32. > :07:34.shelling and gunfire. This man, too scared to be identified, watching
:07:35. > :07:40.his three children play outside, said they had nowhere else to go.
:07:41. > :07:46.What will happen in the war and who will win? TRANSLATION: The rebels,
:07:47. > :07:51.God willing. The regime is not fair. History shows injustice does not
:07:52. > :07:55.last. Because of so much shelling on the
:07:56. > :08:01.streets, the rebels here moved essential services underground. They
:08:02. > :08:09.have a network of small hospitals in basements. In them, they can carry
:08:10. > :08:15.out complex war surgery. And from this underground kitchen, they feed
:08:16. > :08:19.up to 2,500 people per day. The men here said they were good Muslims and
:08:20. > :08:25.not extremists. They wanted Syria to be like Turkey and Malaysia.
:08:26. > :08:30.The Free Syria Army has lost the north of the country to the
:08:31. > :08:32.jihadists of Al`Qaeda and ISIS and to other less extreme Islamist
:08:33. > :08:40.fighters, who are better armed and trained. But these men did not seem
:08:41. > :08:42.war weary. They rejected the recent election and said the destruction of
:08:43. > :08:51.their neighbourhood would not stop them. It is not a question of damage
:08:52. > :08:53.but the mentality about the war. Not 20 minutes' drive from here, there
:08:54. > :08:56.is President Bashar al`Assad's palace, and as far as he is
:08:57. > :09:01.concerned, he has won an overwhelming seven`year mandate. And
:09:02. > :09:08.yet these men are determined to fight on. When we crossed the front
:09:09. > :09:14.lines back into regime`held territory, the urban battlegrounds
:09:15. > :09:16.of Damascus were still close by. Recent local ceasefires have given
:09:17. > :09:20.people confidence enough to fill the streets again but there is still a
:09:21. > :09:23.gulf between those who took up arms against the regime and those who
:09:24. > :09:26.fight to defend it, like Maleki, whose son was killed last year in
:09:27. > :09:41.one of the Damascus suburbs along with 41 other Syrian army soldiers.
:09:42. > :09:46.TRANSLATION: We will continue fighting until the last drop of our
:09:47. > :09:52.blood, until we have dealt with the very last of the rebels. We will
:09:53. > :10:00.keep at them and we will smash them. From central Damascus, the heart of
:10:01. > :10:06.the regime's power, people hear the war in the suburbs rather than see
:10:07. > :10:13.it. Syria's neighbours can feel the war. Violence is crossing borders
:10:14. > :10:15.and into Iraq most of all. Without any kind of peace in sight, it is
:10:16. > :10:35.hard to see how that stops. With Iraq on the brink of a civil
:10:36. > :10:38.war, is there a similar danger in Afghanistan when international
:10:39. > :10:42.troops and combat operations later in the year? Both candidates to
:10:43. > :10:47.become the next president have said they will sign a deal to allow an
:10:48. > :10:50.American presence to say in this country. Our correspondent has been
:10:51. > :10:57.speaking to the outgoing president, Hamid Karzai. I hope you are not
:10:58. > :11:00.very exhausted! Every morning, President Karzai walks to the
:11:01. > :11:06.office, with bodyguards and armoured vehicles. He lives and works inside
:11:07. > :11:09.this heavily protected palace. The Taliban threat means that he rarely
:11:10. > :11:12.leaves the fortress. The men in his security Cabinet worked alongside
:11:13. > :11:19.NATO forces for more than one decade. But like Iraq, foreign
:11:20. > :11:26.combat troops are pulling out, and there is concern that Al Qaeda
:11:27. > :11:30.linked groups could come back. Many around the world are now asking,
:11:31. > :11:34.Afghans are asking whether what is happening in Iraq could happen in
:11:35. > :11:39.Afghanistan. Never, not at all. What makes you confident? I am confident
:11:40. > :11:42.about the Afghan people, yes, we need international support. Where we
:11:43. > :11:47.do not have the means to sustain ourselves. That is welcome, for that
:11:48. > :11:52.we are grateful. But the keeping of the country, the protection of the
:11:53. > :11:55.country is the work of Afghans. This government refused to take up the
:11:56. > :11:59.offer of a strategic pact with the United States which would have meant
:12:00. > :12:03.a long`term military presence in the country. But the two men vying to be
:12:04. > :12:09.the next president have both said they will sign a deal. And that
:12:10. > :12:13.could help Afghanistan avoid some of the worst of what is happening in
:12:14. > :12:17.Iraq. For years, many doubted there would even be a peaceful transfer of
:12:18. > :12:20.power here. Now, the president checks goodbye letters that he will
:12:21. > :12:30.soon send to foreign leaders, including this one to David Cameron.
:12:31. > :12:33.Mr President, what will you say to the Prime Minister in your letter? I
:12:34. > :12:37.will thank him, and the British people, for the help they have given
:12:38. > :12:39.to Afghanistan. You have said NATO forces have done nothing before
:12:40. > :12:52.Afghanistan, and that includes British forces? I have said as I
:12:53. > :12:56.have done on lots of occasions, that the war on terror was not to be
:12:57. > :13:03.fought in Afghan villages or in Afghan homes. The real war on terror
:13:04. > :13:11.is in the sanctuary beyond our walls. As far as Prime Minister
:13:12. > :13:14.Cameron is concerned, he has been a good friend, and a real English
:13:15. > :13:17.gentleman. As President Karzai prepares to move out of the palace
:13:18. > :13:26.with his young family, his country moves towards an uncertain future.
:13:27. > :13:30.They discussed how the fingers of Afghans who voted in the elections
:13:31. > :13:40.were chopped off. What is happening in this country? He says. As Hamid
:13:41. > :13:42.Karzai repairs to move out of this palace with his young family, his
:13:43. > :13:46.country moves towards an uncertain future. Without the peace that he
:13:47. > :13:57.and his allies promised when he first came to power. Security forces
:13:58. > :14:01.in the US say the global online trade in child sex abuse images is
:14:02. > :14:04.now out of control. The BBC was given exclusive access to what is
:14:05. > :14:06.known as the Predator Unit of US Homeland Security, which tracks
:14:07. > :14:10.paedophiles all around the world. Just this year it says it has been
:14:11. > :14:12.behind 1000 arrests across the globe. Angus Crawford joined
:14:13. > :14:24.officers from Operation Predator, you may find his report disturbing.
:14:25. > :14:33.They go in with quiet force. Their mission, to arrest child abusers and
:14:34. > :14:43.stop the trade in obscene images. We have a search warrant! Groggy and
:14:44. > :14:47.confused, a suspect is led away. We do it three to five times a week.
:14:48. > :14:51.Just a matter of how many tips we get and what we find on the
:14:52. > :14:55.Internet. What does that tell you about the scale of the problem you
:14:56. > :15:02.are dealing with? It is out of control. But armed raids are only
:15:03. > :15:07.one of the tactics being used to tackle this growing threat. I'm a
:15:08. > :15:11.dad offering my children for sex. It doesn't get any worse than this.
:15:12. > :15:13.Posing as a paedophile to catch paedophiles. This special agent is
:15:14. > :15:16.online and undercover, offering children for sex to men and women
:15:17. > :15:25.across the world. Including from Britain. It is more than 3000 miles
:15:26. > :15:28.from the hi`tech cybercrime centre in Washington, DC, to this place, a
:15:29. > :15:32.village in rural Dorset. But information from an agent in the US
:15:33. > :15:42.led to a man here called Mark Luscombe. Luscombe had asked the
:15:43. > :15:47.undercover agent to abuse a child live on a webcam. From his home, he
:15:48. > :15:50.sent obscene images as payment. The US passed the evidence to Dorset
:15:51. > :15:59.Police. Luscombe was sent to prison for five years. I think we are very
:16:00. > :16:03.grateful they passed the information to UK law enforcement and within 48
:16:04. > :16:06.hours, we acted on it and we had the offender in custody. In Los Angeles,
:16:07. > :16:10.an extraordinary computer programme allows officers to monitor
:16:11. > :16:14.paedophiles across the world. The software has never been filmed here
:16:15. > :16:24.before. Each coloured dot is another possible offender. The software
:16:25. > :16:28.programme that we utilise is capturing information of when images
:16:29. > :16:36.or videos of child abuse are uploaded or traded on this network.
:16:37. > :16:41.This is in real`time. This is real time, yes. From what I can see, just
:16:42. > :16:44.above Croydon, there is a red dot. That means there is an individual
:16:45. > :16:53.there who, at this moment, is exchanging images of child sexual
:16:54. > :16:55.abuse. Accessing, yes. The message is clear. International cooperation
:16:56. > :16:58.means there is nowhere to hide. Angus Crawford, BBC News, Los
:16:59. > :17:01.Angeles. Think of space, and you think of NASA or the Kennedy Space
:17:02. > :17:09.Centre, but you wouldn't think of the Isle of Man. 45 years since man
:17:10. > :17:12.first walked on the moon, the conquest of space has changed beyond
:17:13. > :17:15.all recognition. Space is more about commerce, and the newest commercial
:17:16. > :17:21.centre for cosmic researchers in the middle of the Irish Sea. We report
:17:22. > :17:33.from the Isle of Man on NASA's new rival. I think there is some real
:17:34. > :17:39.space treasure here. This is fantastic. I've always wanted to see
:17:40. > :17:46.one of these. These Russian`built spacecraft were designed in the
:17:47. > :17:50.1970s. They have proved themselves in space. An American lawyer has
:17:51. > :18:01.bought them with the aim of putting space tourists into orbit. I think
:18:02. > :18:04.these Russians were slightly smaller than me. They would cost upwards of
:18:05. > :18:13.350 million pounds to do it. This has been in space. There is hardly
:18:14. > :18:16.any legroom at all. But I would do it. Even though it's not
:18:17. > :18:19.comfortable, I would bet money and get out there. What I find slightly
:18:20. > :18:24.freaky is I'm sitting in a Russian space capsule in a hangar in the
:18:25. > :18:30.Isle of Man. Who would have thought it? It is quite bizarre. These
:18:31. > :18:33.spaceships are part of a space revolution. The Island is 32 miles
:18:34. > :18:42.long, with a population of 85,000 people. But it is prosperous,
:18:43. > :18:45.because it is not part of the EU or the UK, which means it can set low
:18:46. > :18:48.taxes, and give generous government grants. There are 30 space`related
:18:49. > :18:54.companies on the island, including four of the well`stocked satellite
:18:55. > :18:58.organisations. `` world's top satellite organisations. Together
:18:59. > :19:06.with world experts. This builds up to a $300 million a year industry.
:19:07. > :19:13.The island's government has a history of chasing new areas of
:19:14. > :19:18.business. Lovely to see you in the Isle of Man. The space breakthrough
:19:19. > :19:22.came in 2001. We were looking for new things for the Isle of Man to
:19:23. > :19:26.do. We have a very successful shipping industry, a very successful
:19:27. > :19:33.aircraft registry, and the government had the vision to get
:19:34. > :19:36.involved in acquiring these things. Satellites sweep around the earth in
:19:37. > :19:41.their own protected area of space. What gives the island and advantage
:19:42. > :19:45.is that satellite operators have two apply for those slots through a
:19:46. > :19:50.country. Even one as tiny as the Isle of Man. All of this reflects
:19:51. > :19:57.the island's attempt to capitalise on what is effectively a third year
:19:58. > :20:01.space. Space exploration started in the 1950s as a competition. A race
:20:02. > :20:07.to be the first into orbit at the first to the moon. By the 1970s, the
:20:08. > :20:13.race was over and collaboration was the key. Apollo and other astronauts
:20:14. > :20:18.literally shook hands in space in 1975. In by the 21st century, the
:20:19. > :20:26.space station was a multinational project. But it was still dominated
:20:27. > :20:29.by nation states. I believe we are entering the third era of space, an
:20:30. > :20:32.era of commercialisation. We launch more and more satellites every day.
:20:33. > :20:38.Space tourism is taking off, and the global space industry is booming on
:20:39. > :20:44.the Isle of Man. It looks small`scale, but this company is
:20:45. > :20:52.part of the new era. His team built space optics for NASA's Mars radar.
:20:53. > :20:56.`` Rover. The Isle of Man has links to the International Space
:20:57. > :21:03.University in Strasbourg. 60 of their graduates work on the island.
:21:04. > :21:08.The unemployment rate is just 2%. The advantages of the Isle of Man,
:21:09. > :21:11.it is a very stable and low`crime environment. If you look around you,
:21:12. > :21:16.there is lots of expensive equipment. We know that we can lock
:21:17. > :21:20.up on Friday or Saturday, and on Monday everything will be in place.
:21:21. > :21:22.The Isle of Man 's success brings home the economic opportunities that
:21:23. > :21:25.have been created now space exploration is moving from a state
:21:26. > :21:37.funded model to a commercial business. That is all from Reporters
:21:38. > :21:54.this week, from me and the team, goodbye.
:21:55. > :22:01.Hi there. Most of us had a glorious day with sunshine around on
:22:02. > :22:04.Saturday. Warmest place in the British files was towards
:22:05. > :22:10.Southampton, with highs of 25 degrees. Overnight we had thicker
:22:11. > :22:11.cloud across northern Scotland bringing some showers, otherwise