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ISIL claims responsibility for Bangladesh mosque attack

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Two suspects arrested after gunmen storm mosque and open fire on praying worshipers, killing one and wounding three.

A man wounded in an attack on a Shia mosque is carried for treatment in Bogra district on Thursday [AP]

A man wounded in an attack on a Shia mosque is carried for treatment in Bogra district on Thursday [AP]

by Saif Khalid, Al Jazeera

ISIL claimed responsibility after gunmen killed one Shia Muslim and wounded three others at a mosque in Bangladesh, a US monitoring website said Friday, the second assault targeting the religious minority in a month.

However, a Bangladeshi official denied that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was operating in the South Asian nation of 160 million people.

Three masked attackers entered the Imam Khomeini mosque in Haripur village and began shooting indiscriminately before escaping, witnesses told Al Jazeera. At least 20 people were performing evening prayers at the time on Thursday.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the attack in Bogra district, 125 kilometres northest of the capital Dhaka, according to local media reports.

The US-based intelligence group SITE, which monitors the commications of armed groups, said ISIL had taken responsibility online for the mosque assault.

But Muntasirul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said he doubted the veracity of ISIL’s statements, adding past claims by the group could not be corroborated.

“We have spoken to the media before, categorically denying ISIL’s claims in the past. Investigating agencies did not find any relations with the murder of bloggers and foreign nationals to outside terrorist organisations,” Islam told Al Jazeera.

Seventy-year-old Moazzem Hossain – the mosque’s muezzin, the man who calls Muslims for prayer – died shortly after being admitted to a local hospital.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for the murder of two foreign nationals in recent months, as well as the grisly killings of several bloggers.

On October 24, ISIL claimed responsibility for a series of blasts targeting Shia Muslims in Dhaka during a religious procession, killing one person.

But Islam told Al Jazeera local armed groups were behind past attacks, not ISIL. “They use the name of Islamic of State [of Iraq and the Levant] to attract media attention,” he said.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said those carrying out attacks are not real Muslims.

“Killing people during prayers at mosques is not a job done by a true Muslim … nor is suicide a job of a true Muslim,” she was quoted as saying.

Amid rising threat to foreign nationals, Australia on Friday asked its citizens to voluntarily leave Bangladesh, adding that it will withdraw government-funded volunteers by December 31.

Additional reporting by Mahmud Hossain Opu

Seventy-year-old Moazzem Hossain - the mosque's muezzin - died shortly after being admitted to a local hospital [The Associated Press]

Seventy-year-old Moazzem Hossain – the mosque’s muezzin – died shortly after being admitted to a local hospital [The Associated Press]

Deadly blasts hit Yemen mosque during Eid prayers

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At least 25 dead, dozens wounded as two suspected suicide bombers attack Shia mosque in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen's government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen’s government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Suicide bombers have struck a mosque in Yemen’s capital in an attack targeting Shia worshippers that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens, medics and witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sanaa has been shaken by a string of bombings by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in recent months targeting Shia Muslims.

Thursday’s blast ripped through the Balili mosque where Houthi Shia rebels who control Sanaa go to pray, according to witnesses. It came as worshippers marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar.

Witnesses reported that after a first blast inside the mosque, a second suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshippers rushed outside.

ISIL, a Sunni Muslim group which controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, considers Shias to be heretics.

ISIL bomb attacks targeting several Shia mosques in Sanaa on March 21 killed 142 people. The group has also claimed attacks on mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for the past year. The Houthis have also expanded their grip to other parts of the country.

Extremists exploit chaos

Pro-government forces backed by air strikes and troops provided by a Saudi-led Arab coalition have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including the second city of Aden.

After six months in exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returned to Aden on Tuesday with a vow to liberate the country from the Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels on March 26, and began a ground operation in July.

Hadi loyalists began an all-out offensive against the Houthis in the oil-rich Marib province east of Sanaa earlier this month, aiming to retake the capital.

The United Nations says around 5,000 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded, many of them civilians, since late March in Yemen.

Yemen has descended into chaos since the 2012 ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and security has broken down since Houthi militiamen swept unopposed into the capital a year ago.

ISIL and the Yemen-based branch of its rival Al-Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Qaeda has long been a dominant force in Yemen, located next to oil-flush Saudi Arabia and key shipping lanes, but experts say ISIL is seeking to supplant its rival.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls parts of the vast southeastern province of Hadramawt, including the provincial capital Mukalla, which it is seized in April.

It has distanced itself from ISIL’s tactics, saying that it avoids targeting mosques to protect “innocent Muslims”.

Kuwait to hold mass funeral for mosque attack victims

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Day of mourning declared and suspects reportedly held a day after deaths of 27 people in bombing in Shia mosque.

Shia mosque attack

by Al Jazeera

Kuwait is to hold a mass funeral for the victims of a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque that killed 27 people and wounded 227 others.

Saturday was also a day of mourning in the Gulf Arab country following the attack on the Imam Sadiq mosque in the district of Sawaber, in the eastern part of Kuwait City.

The funeral will follow the arrests of several people suspected of involvement in Friday’s bombing.

The owner of the car that drove the bomber has been arrested and a search is under way for the driver, Kuwait’s state news agency reported on Saturday.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which was Kuwait’s worst attack in years and the first on a Shia mosque.

In a message posted on a Twitter account known to belong to the group, ISIL claimed the blast was the work of a bomber wearing an explosive vest.

The attack prompted the Kuwaiti cabinet to announce after an emergency meeting that all security agencies and police had been placed on alert to confront what it called “black terror”.

“The cabinet stresses that it will take whatever measures necessary to root out this scourge, and declares a relentless all-out confrontation with these terrorists,” it said in a statement.

Kuwait’s Emir Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah visited the mosque, located just a few buildings away from the country’s interior ministry, following the attack.

He said the bombing violated the sanctity of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as well as Islamic law forbidding the shedding of the blood of innocents.

“National unity is a protective fence for the security of the nation,” Sabah said.

ISIL targeted Shia mosques in neighbouring Saudi Arabia on two consecutive Fridays in May.

Clouds of smoke

Video footage from the scene showed several bodies on the floor of the mosque amid debris and clouds of heavy smoke.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti government spokesperson, said that despite security forces having been equipped with the latest technology, attacks such as the one that occurred on Friday were very hard to stop.

“We will be investing in metal detectors and the like but even that can be overcome with the use of different types of technologies,” he told Al Jazeera.

Shia Muslims comprise between 15 and 30 percent of the predominantly Sunni Muslim state, where members of both communities are known to live side by side with little apparent friction.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Kuwait City, said “the shock of yesterday’s attack will be something it will take a long time for Kuwaitis to get over”.

“This is a country where they say Sunni and Shia live harmoniously and they will continue to do so,” he said.

“In Kuwait, nobody could have anticipated this. That’s why the people are so worried.”

ISIL claims responsibility for Saudi mosque attack

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At least 21 people killed after suicide bomber detonates explosives during Friday prayers in Qatif province.

Qatif

by Al Jazeera

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed in an online statement that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack at a mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province of Qatif.

The statement said “the soldiers of the Caliphate” were behind Friday’s attack by a suicide bomber “who detonated an explosives belt” in the mosque in the Shia-majority city of Qatif.

The group identified the bomber as Abu Amer al-Najdi, and published a picture of him.

Earlier on Friday, the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that a suicide bomber had set off an explosion during weekly prayers at a Shia mosque, leaving at least 21 dead.

“It has been established that an individual detonated a bomb he was wearing under his clothes during Friday prayers at Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Kudeih in Qatif province,” the statement, which was carried by the official SPA news agency, said.

The ministry spokesman called the attack an act of terrorism, vowing that “Security authorities will spare no effort in the pursuit of all those involved in this terrorist crime”.

Pictures posted on social media purported to show the devastation, with dead bodies strewn across the floor and shattered glass covering the courtyard of the mosque.

Saudi Arabia’s Shia population is mostly based in two oasis districts of the Eastern Province, Qatif on the Gulf coast, and al-Ahsa, southwest of the provincial capital al-Khobar.

The community accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of the total population.

The attack was the first to target the Shia community in Saudi Arabia since November when gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack on a religious anniversary celebration, also in the east.

Suicide bomber attacks Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia

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At least seven people reportedly killed after attacker detonates explosives during Friday prayers in Qatif province.

About 150 people were praying in the mosque when it was attacked [Twitter]

About 150 people were praying in the mosque when it was attacked [Twitter]

by Al Jazeera

A suicide bomber has detonated his explosives at a Shia mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, killing at least seven people and wounding several others, witnesses said.

One witness described a huge explosion at the Imam Ali Mosque in a village in the province of Qatif, where more than 150 people were praying.

An activist told the AFP news agency that at least four worshippers were killed, while a source told the Reuters news agency that there appeared to be at least 30 casualties in the attack. More recent estimates have placed the death toll higher.

Pictures posted on social media purported to show the devastation, with dead bodies strewn across the floor and shattered glass covering the courtyard of the mosque.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital Riyadh, said authorities expected the death toll the rise.

Saudi Arabia’s Shia population is mostly based in two oasis districts of the Eastern Province – Qatif on the Gulf coast, and al-Ahsa, southwest of the provincial capital al-Khobar.

Qatif and al-Ahsa have historically been the focal point of anti-government demonstrations.

The kingdom’s Shia community accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of the total population. They say they face discrimination in seeking educational opportunities or government employment and that they are referred to disparagingly in text books and by some Sunni officials and state-funded clerics.

They also complain of restrictions on setting up places of worship and marking Shia holidays, and say that Qatif and al-Ahsa receive less state funding than Sunni communities of equivalent size.

The Saudi government denies allegations of discrimination.

Hassan Nasrallah: Conflict in Middle East political, not sectarian

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The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah speaks in a rare public appearance addressing thousands of his supporters on November 3, 2014 the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs. (Photo: AFP)

The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah speaks in a rare public appearance addressing thousands of his supporters on November 3, 2014 the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs. (Photo: AFP)

by Al-Akhbar

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Monday that the current turmoil in the Middle East region was a “political,” not “sectarian” conflict.

Addressing thousands of supporters in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital on the religious festival of Ashura in a rare public appearance, Nasrallah repeated that his movement was waging war against radical Islamists and Israel, not against Sunnis.

“Portraying the current conflict as one between Shias and Sunnis is a major mistake,” Nasrallah said in his second appearance among his supporters in a few months.

“I address all Shias in the region: You need to understand that Sunnis are not our enemies. We are not at war with Sunnis.”

“I address Sunnis in the region: Shias are not at war with you. We are both, together, at war with extremist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),” he added.

Nasrallah said that what happens in the Middle East would decide its future for years to come.

“Our battle is against radicals who want to crush everybody else and against Israel,” Nasrallah said.

“This is not a battle against Sunnis,” he added, going on to call on Sunni Muslims to practice caution in regard to the current developments.

Hezbollah supports Michel Aoun for Lebanon’s presidency

Bringing up the current political stagnation in Lebanon, the Hezbollah chief said his movement would back its main Christian ally, Michel Aoun, in the country’s long-delayed presidential vote.

Lebanese parliament is tasked by the constitution to select a president, a decision that has already been put off 14 times as the war in Syria continues to divide rival political blocs.

Nasrallah blamed the political paralysis on external factors.

“Lebanese political factions are restrained by regional vetoes and these decisions are responsible for Lebanon’s presidential vacuum,” he said on Monday.

He reiterated his call for national dialogue to solve the crisis, adding that Hezbollah was willing to sit down with “any political group.”

While discussing Lebanese internal matters, Nasrallah also praised Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the Future Movement political party for their roles in defusing clashes in the northern city of Tripoli.

Nasrallah calls for Ashura rallies despite threats

Nasrallah called for a large turnout on Tuesday, which sees the peak of Ashura, a commemoration that marks the killing of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures of Shia Islam.

Ashura events have increasingly become targets of deadly bombings and attacks over the years.

“Tomorrow we will prove that we are above any threat, any danger, any challenge,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah addressed the crowds again by video link on Tuesday morning, where he condemned recent attacks on Ashura commemorations in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria.

He also condemned recent Israeli aggressions in Jerusalem and the storming of the al-Aqsa compound by Zionist extremists.

He reiterated comments on ISIS and Islamist extremist.

“The takfiri project will be defeated sooner or later,” he said. “The fall of ISIS is inevitable.”

“These takfiris will be defeated in all areas and countries, and we will feel honored that we played a role in their defeat,” he added.

(Anadolu, AFP, Al-Akhbar)

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