Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
Promote
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/24/2017 5:41:34 PM

Suicide bomber blows himself up as Saudis foil Mecca plot

ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and JON GAMBRELL

Saudi security forces foil suicide bomb attack on Mecca's Grand Mosque

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque at Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and led to the building's collapse. He was killed while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car as what appeared to be shrapnel and bullet holes peppered nearby structures.

The Interior Ministry "confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth."

"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," the statement said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately claimed those arrested, though Islamic State sympathizers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a U.S.-led coalition.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia as King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne. The newly appointed crown prince, 31 years old, is the architect of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen against Shiite rebels, now stalemated. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighboring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich tiny country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.

As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, over 1 million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan. In July 2016, a suicide bombing there killed four members of Saudi Arabia's security forces. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca. The same day in July, separate suicide bomb attacks targeted a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part as it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. King Salman is known as the "custodian of the two holy mosques," a title used by the monarchs before him as well.

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.


(Yahoo News)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+2
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/24/2017 11:48:01 PM

Community Leaders, Clergy And Elite Businessmen Busted In Massive Child Sex Ring – Hundreds Arrested

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+2
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/25/2017 12:21:31 AM

'DEATH TO AMERICA, DEATH TO ISRAEL': IRAN PROTESTERS CHANT AND BURN ISIS FLAGS IN TEHRAN


BY


Iran held its annual Quds Day marches across the country on Friday, with protesters burning the flag of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard displayed ballistic missiles to mark the day, showing off the Zolfaghar missile that the military fired at ISIS positions in eastern Syria for the first time on Sunday.

The celebration is to rally for Al-Quds, the Arabic name for the city of Jerusalem, and protest Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Protesters burned effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, held up critical posters showing him alongside U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman, and carried banners that read "Israel should be wiped off the map."

At the biggest march, in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who called Israel "the mother of terrorism," attended alongside Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"This year's rally...shows people want our region to be cleaned up from terrorists, backed by the Zionist regime [Israel]," Rouhani told state TV.


Iranians hold images of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adorned with Islamist-inspired beards during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on June 23. Chants against the Saudi royal family and the Islamic State group mingled with the traditional cries of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" at Jerusalem Day rallies across Iran today.STRINGER/AFP/GETTY

Shia-majority Iran considers Israel to be its archenemy, and anti-Israel sentiment is widespread. The country supports Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas, who fought wars with Israel as recently as 2006 and 2014, respectively.

The protesters also targeted ISIS after it claimed a twin suicide-bomb attack in Tehran that left 18 people dead at the country's parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The burning of the flags comes after the strikes against ISIS on Sunday. The Iranian military said it had killed more than 300 militants in the raid. But Israelis mocked the strike as failing to hit its target.

Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot said Tehran was lying about the strike. “Their achievement was less than what was reported in the media. The strike manifested something, but it was far from a direct hit or what they have said,” said Eisenkot during the Herzliya policy conference on Tuesday.

He said Iran was attempting to “get more accurate rockets” in its “push for hegemony” in the Middle East, but it was not there yet.

At least three of the seven ballistic missiles did not reach their intended targets, Israeli sources said in the Hebrew-language media, The Times of Israel reported.

Iran repeatedly threatens Israel with destruction and says its missiles can reach Israeli territory. Israel says its ballistic missile program, and what it says are ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon, threaten its national security.


(Newsweek)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+2
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/25/2017 12:45:03 AM

Israel strikes Syrian military near Golan Heights

Updated 1939 GMT (0339 HKT) June 24, 2017



This picture taken from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights shows smoke billowing from the Syrian side of the border on June 24, 2017.

(CNN) Israel launched strikes on Syrian military positions Saturday, close to the two countries' disputed border in the Golan Heights, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The action was a response to what the IDF said were more than 10 projectiles fired into Israel from inside Syria. The IDF described the projectile fire as "errant," blaming it on internal fighting.
    Israeli aircraft targeted three positions from which the projectiles were fired, the IDF said. The strikes included hits on two tanks belonging to the Syrian regime.

    Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported several people were killed in the Israeli strikes. SANA said fighting in the area is between the Syrian regime and the al Nusra Front, a militant Syrian rebel group. No one is reported to have been wounded as a result of the projectile fire.


    Israeli soldiers patrol near the border with Syria after projectiles fired from the war-torn country hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on June 24, 2017.

    Israel lodged an official protest with the United Nations' Disengagement Observer Force, which monitors relations between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, over what it called an unacceptable breach of Israeli sovereignty.

    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

    +2
    Luis Miguel Goitizolo

    1162
    61587 Posts
    61587
    Invite Me as a Friend
    Top 25 Poster
    Person Of The Week
    RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
    6/25/2017 11:15:00 AM

    Venezuelan protesters, security forces clash at air base


    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Young protesters broke down a metal fence guarding an air base in Caracas on Saturday before being repelled by security forces firing tear gas in another day of anti-government protests in Venezuela's capital.

    Demonstrators threw stones, and some protesters were injured.

    The clashes took place after a peaceful mass demonstration next to La Carlota base where a 22-year-old protester was killed this week when a national guardsman shot him in the chest at close range with rubber bullets.

    Protesters also fought with security forces outside the base Friday, and activists burned some vehicles during the confrontation.

    President Nicolas Maduro said in an address to troops Saturday that he had managed to break up a U.S.-backed plot to oust him. Like his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro frequently accuses the U.S. of trying to topple Venezuela's socialist administration.

    Maduro praised Venezuela's military for standing by the government and he warned that attempts are underway to try to sow further dissent.

    More than 70 people have been killed and hundreds injured in almost three months of demonstrations.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that protesters burned vehicles on Friday


    (Yahoo News)


    "Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

    +2


    facebook
    Like us on Facebook!