Economy

Over 30 killed in suicide attacks on Syrian security forces

Homs (IINA) � A series of suicide attacks on military installations in Syria’s government-held city of Homs on Saturday have killed at least 32 people, including the army’s intelligence chief – a close confidante of President Bashar Al -Assad. However, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 people had been killed.

The observatory said that loud explosions and gunfire were heard following the assault in the western city. “There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence,” Syrian Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency. The governor of Homs province, Talal Barzani, said there were three blasts in total killing 32 people and wounding more than 20 others.

The attacks hit the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods and security forces locked down the city centre. Syrian state television said the army’s intelligence chief General Hassan Daabul died and it paid tribute to the “martyrs” in Saturday’s bombings, Al Jazeera reported. It was unclear how the assailants could have pulled off such an audacious assault.

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for the attack. “We’re also hearing that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – that is the new name for the al-Nusra Front – is claiming responsibility. That’s according to state TV, which has not been confirmed anywhere else,” Simmons reported. Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the city centre under a UN-brokered truce.

But the city has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year. The attacks come as peace negotiators continue talks for the second day in Geneva over Syria’s six-year-old civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Source: International Islamic News Agency

OIC chief receives Russia’s permanent representative to OIC on completion of his tenure

Jeddah, (IINA) – Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen received on Thursday in his office Ambassador Oleg Ozerov, Russian Federation’s Permanent Representative to the OIC, on the occasion of completi…

CAIR to join progressive, interfaith partners in condemning hate group’s anti-Mosque event

San Antonio, City Texas (IINA) – The San Antonio, Texas, chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-San Antonio) on Thursday will join progressive, interfaith organizations* and elected officials at a news conference to condemn an anti-…

German state of Bavaria passes draft law to ban burqa in public

Berlin (IINA) � The government of the German state of Bavaria on Tuesday announced a draft law which would prohibit Muslim women from wearing burqas or niqabs (face veils) in certain public spaces, DPA reported.

Covering up your face will be banned in areas of public service, in high schools, schools, kindergartens, in areas relating to general security and during voting, the Bavarian government announced.

When Muslim women cover their faces, they are breaking the local culture of communication, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.

A communicative exchange takes place not only through speech, but also through eye contact, facial expressions and gestures,” he said, adding: This is the basis of our interaction with one another and the foundation of our society and our free democratic order.”

Bavaria, one of the most conservative states in Germany, controversially proposed bringing in a ban on the burqa after two terror attacks hit the state within the space of a week in July 2016. At the time, Herrmann described the burqa as a foreign body in our land.

In November Bavaria called for a national ban on wearing the burqa in public.

Source: International Islamic News Agency

France to host mini-EU summit to discuss EU

Paris, (IINA) – France will host a mini-EU summit early next month to discuss the future of the bloc ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, French President Francois Hollande said Monday.Hollande, who is in Spain for an official visit, sa…

CAIR calls on authorities to probe call to violence against Muslims in North Carolina

North Carolina (IINA) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate an alleged call to violence against America…