Archive for category: News

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted that those responsible for a deadly crush of Hajj pilgrims in Mina, Saudi Arabia, should be brought to justice.

Maliki said the Riyadh regime should be held accountable for the Mina catastrophe, and blamed “poor management” for the incident.

He also called for an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the crush, stressing that the whole countries whose nationals have died in the incident should oversee the process of investigation.

The Iraqi politician also hailed Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei’s stance towards Saudi Arabia after the Mina deaths.

Maliki said the Leader’s comments “well laid bare the threat of Takfiri Wahhabism originating from Saudi Arabia.”

Imam Khamenei said on Wednesday that the slightest disrespect for the Iranian Hajj pilgrims or its failure to repatriate the bodies of those killed in the Mina crush will draw Iran’s “severe and tough reaction”.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has had respect for fraternity in the Islamic world up to now, showing self-restraint and Islamic politeness, the Leader noted.

Iran has lost 464 pilgrims in the crush, which marked the worst ever Hajj disaster.

/257

A source in the Yemeni military confirmed that at least 55 troops and mercenaries of the US-Saudi aggression on the country were killed or wounded in the major operations launched by the national military in the province of Marib.

The military source said that eight military vehicles and 5 armored others of the Saudi-led coalition were destroyed in the vicinity Al-Balaq, That Al-Ra’ and Marbat Al-Dam in Marib during the past few hours.

Another Saudi military vehicle has also been destroyed and crew killed in a mortar shelling by the Yemeni army and the Popular Committees that targeted Al-Jihad center near the site of Al-Radif in Jizan, south west of Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition force has been striking Yemen for 190 days now to restore power to fugitive President Abed-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 6,433 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

/149

Austrian authorities on Thursday jailed three Chechen nationals suspected of links with ISIS.

An Austrian court issued jail sentences to the three suspects, identified as Chechen asylum-seekers, including a man, his wife and his mother.

They have been reportedly trying to join ISIS militants in Syria.

“The 20-year-old man, his 21-year-old wife and the man’s 39-year-old mother were intercepted in Turkey.”

The suspects said that they were in Turkey seeking medical treatment for the mother, who is said to be suffering depression and panic attacks.

However, Austrian judge Daniel Rechenmacher stressed that the suspects’ arguments were “completely implausible and disproved by objective evidence material”.

On Thursday, the Chechen man was sentenced to two years in jail, his wife 19 months and the mother 21 months.

Noteworthy, the wife was reportedly pregnant when she was arrested, and has given birth in custody to a boy whom she then called Osama.

/257

Russian air strikes in Syria will last for three to four months and will intensify, the head of the lower house of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee announced on Friday.

“There is always a risk of being bogged down but in Moscow, we are talking about an operation of three to four months,” Alexei Pushkov told French radio station Europe 1. He added that the strikes were going to intensify.

Pushkov was speaking a few hours before Putin was due to meet leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine in Paris for talks about Ukraine which were likely to be overshadowed by the conflict in Syria.

Pushkov said the strikes mainly targeted ISIL terrorists. “The opponents to Bashar are very close to Daesh (ISIL),” Pushkov said. US sources have claimed that the Russians hit facilities of a US-backed group, some of whose militants received training and support from the CIA.

Pushkov said the US-led coalition had “pretended” to bomb ISIL forces for a year.

“They pretended… Only 20 percent of their (U.S. led coalition) operations produced results, 80 percent of them did not lead to bombardments, they returned to base for different reasons,” Pushkov said.

Russia launched its first air strikes on Wednesday with airstrikes targeting terrorists in Hama, Idlib, Aleppo and other areas.

Pushkov said there were would be first contacts between US and Russian military officials on Friday to discuss operations in Syria.

On Friday, Pushkov also said Russian submarines with nuclear missile launching capabilities patrolling the Atlantic were a “response” to NATO’s plans to build up its operations in Eastern Europe. “These are the rules of the game…. So this is a response,” Pushkov said.

/149

A Lebanese Sunni scholar pointed out the inadequacy of the House of Saud in managing the Hajj pilgrimage and emphasized that the Mina case should be reviewed by appropriate courts in Arab and Muslim countries.

Shaykh Abdul-Naser al-Jabri, a Lebanese Sunni scholar and the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Ummah Movement, called for an investigate into the tragic stampede in Mina which led to the deaths of 4,000 Hajj pilgrims last Thursday, and said: “In the past, we suggested to the authorities in charge of the Hajj pilgrimage that Islamic countries should participate in the Hajj and provide security for the pilgrims but unfortunately we have not heard an answer from them in this regard.”

His Eminence added that participation in the management of Hajj is necessary and added that it is common in all countries which are affected by disasters that people from all over the world help them. We have seen this in the aftermath of severe earthquakes. “Besides Saudi Arabia’s inability to deal those killed or injured in the stampede incident, they haven’t allowed other countries to investigate the incident either,” he said.

He said that no country can manage the Hajj ceremony alone, so Saudi Arabia must get help from other Islamic countries.

Shaykh al-Jabri pointed out that much larger gatherings than Hajj have been held without incident throughout the world.

The Lebanese Sunni scholar referred to the Holy Quran, wherein God Almighty states: “Cooperate in piety and Godwariness, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression” [5:2] and said Islamic countries’ participation in the hajj pilgrimage is quite natural and represents collaboration among Muslims.

His Eminence stated that Saudi Arabia is responsible for the incident in Mina and added that they cannot deny and reject responsibility for this incident and throwing the blame on the shoulders of the pilgrims is impossible because they were only seeking to perform the Hajj rituals.

Shaykh al-Jabri called for this incident to be examined by Islamic and Arab courts and organizations and stressed that it should not be raised in Western countries because we don’t expect anything else besides evil and the destruction by the West so how can we bring forward an Islamic case to them. “The case should be heard in Islamic and Arab countries and in a strong manner,” he said.

He invited Islamic scholars to support the oppressed countries such as Yemen, Syria, Libya and Iraq and said Islamic countries in the region are responsible for maintaining the blood of Muslims in the region and stated that Arab governments must stand against the arrogant powers in both the East and the West.

/257