Bomb explodes next to Prophet's Mosque as terrorists target Madinah after Jeddah, Qatif

[email protected] (CD Network)
July 4, 2016

Riyadh, Jul 4: Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia today in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom where the anti-Islamic group called Islamic State' has previously staged deadly attacks. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

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The latest explosion occurred outside of Islam's three holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque (Masjid an-Nabawi) in Madinah in the kingdom's west where Muhammad (pbuh) established first Islamic society after migration from Makkah.

Al-Arabiya said the Madinah incident occurred during sunset prayers after which Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends Tuesday.

Four policemen were killed and five others were injured in Madinah when a suicide bomber struck in the vicinity of a police post outside the Prophet's Mosque, according to the interior ministry.

The bombing took place in a parking lot between the city court and the mosque, visited by millions every year.

When security officials became suspicious of an individual who was heading to the Prophet's Mosque they approached him resulting in him triggering his explosive belt killing four of the officers and injuring others.

The Prophet's Mosque is particularly crowded during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is supposed to be a time of charity but has seen spectacular attacks around the region.

Earlier, in Qatif, two suicide bombers blew themselves up one after the other outside the Faraj Al-Omran Mosque. No casualties were reported. A witness said a car bomb was detonated near the mosque, which was followed by a suicide attack just before 7 p.m. Police have launched an investigation into the attack.

Before that at 2:15 a.m., a suicide bomber blew himself up near the US Consulate in Jeddah. Security officers confronted him as he moved suspiciously at a parking lot of the Dr. Soliman Fakeih Hospital. Two policemen were wounded lightly in the attack.

Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, Interior Ministry spokesman, said the bomber, in his 30s, was identified as an expatriate from the Pakistan.

Photos taken from the scene showed the bomber's body dismembered by the blast.

Daesh has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since 2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly Shiites and members of the security services. In January, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Al-Ahsa, killing four people before worshippers disarmed and tied up an accomplice who had shot at them.

In October last year, a gunman opened fire on worshippers in Qatif, killing five people before he was shot dead by police.

Also Read: 4 cops sacrifice their lives to prevent suicide bomber from entering Prophet's mosque

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Comments

Curious
 - 
Wednesday, 6 Jul 2016

Bopanna is currect ,because information he has is only from media. Media is dominated by westerns who are waging war with islam . Today's youth are dumb and def what they listen from media they believe. Only they don't believe is true message of Quran .

muhammed rafique
 - 
Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016

Bopanna ...your phrase is outdated.....

And mind you.... because of the Islamic country's Saudi;s sharia law you are highly secured in the Kingdom

probably Saudi is the only country to execute more terrorists than any other country

Bopanna
 - 
Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016

Nice try Ashish. Why is it that 99% of bombings are done by Muslims ? Immediately you guys say that they have nothing to do with Islam. Ye kab tak chalaoge ?

No Islam = Know Peace
Know Islam = No peace

Ashish
 - 
Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016

Mr. Bopanna,

Hinduism cannot be blamed for all the acts executed by hindutva activits(Self claimed). Similarly, Islam cannot be blamed for bunch of few extremist who doesn't have a basic humanity.

imtiaz
 - 
Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016

inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raajiwoon.... may Allah protect us all from such bloody suicide bombers ...

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coastaldigest.com news network
February 16,2020

Uppinangady, Feb 16: Eleven people were injured, when a private bus in which they were travelling, toppled near Kodikal on Sunday, police said.

According to Police, more than 20 people were travelling in the bus towards Puttur from Sakleshpur when the mishap took place.

All the inmates were on their way to attend a wedding.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Feb 19: Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty was once a typical billionaire with a taste for the high-life.

He splurged on a private jet, vintage cars and two entire floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. His website shows him hobnobbing with politicians, Bill Gates and Bollywood royalty.

“The thrill of speed and freedom makes me love cars,” Shetty, 77, told local reporters last year.

Shetty had more than enough money -- at least on paper -- to afford such a lifestyle from companies he helped found, including hospital operator NMC Health Plc and financial services firm Finablr Plc. On Dec. 10, his stakes in the public companies were valued at $2.4 billion, making up the bulk of a fortune spanning education, hospitality and one of the world’s oldest tea companies.

Then, a week later, Carson Block came along.

Block’s investment firm, Muddy Waters, issued a report criticizing NMC’s accounts and disclosing a short position. Since then, Muddy Waters’s scrutiny has snowballed into a troubling scenario for Shetty that sheds light on his complex share arrangements and casts doubts about his net worth. His holdings in Finablr and NMC are worth $885 million, but Shetty’s fortune may now be just a fraction of that, depending on the size of his borrowings.

Filings this month show that Shetty pledged a quarter of his NMC stake against loans with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank. Two other shareholders may own half of his reported stake. Another lender -- Al Salam Bank Bahrain -- has already sold some of those shares to enforce security over a loan for Shetty, and NMC said Tuesday that First Abu Dhabi Bank sold another chunk earlier this month.

The situation “seems to have gone beyond some of the issues that Muddy Waters focused on initially,“ said Gavin Launder, a fund manager at Legal & General Investment Management, who owned shares in NMC until October. “The increased scrutiny has unearthed other issues.”

Law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has launched a review of Shetty’s holdings at his request, a spokesperson for the Indian-born businessman said, declining to comment further until the analysis is completed. Shetty resigned Sunday as NMC’s chairman.

In its Dec. 17 report on NMC, Muddy Waters hinted at potential overpayment for assets, inflated cash balances and understated debt. Shares of the United Arab Emirates’ biggest private health-care provider have since plunged 67%, and the firm is now the focus of takeover speculation. The sell-off also spread to Finablr, whose stock has tumbled 64% in that span.

NMC has disputed Muddy Waters’s claims, and the company hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to conduct an independent review of the short seller’s allegations. Meanwhile, local regulators “are making inquiries with the relevant parties,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority said.

Shetty is hardly the only ultra-wealthy person to leverage his assets. Elon Musk has used his shares in Tesla Inc. to obtain personal loans, while Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up millions of the company’s shares to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California.

But such deals can also sour, as demonstrated by Shetty’s lenders selling shares his investment firm pledged. He and his advisers are investigating details of the sales as part of their legal review, according to filings.

To complicate matters, Shetty pledged another batch of NMC stock in 2018 as part of a so-called equity collar arrangement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that uses options to limit the impact from share moves. Last month, he also pledged most of his stake in Finablr to refinance a loan from the company’s takeover of foreign-exchange firm Travelex for about $1.2 billion.

BRS Ventures Investment, the UAE-based holding company for most of Shetty’s assets, doesn’t report consolidated financials, preventing a complete analysis of his net worth. His other assets include a catering company, a waste-management firm and pharmaceutical business Neopharma, which four months ago was in the early stages of planning for an initial public offering.

Block, 43, earned his reputation as a short seller a decade ago through targeting U.S.-listed Chinese companies that he claimed were frauds. More recently, his San Francisco-based firm focused on British litigation-finance firm Burford Capital Ltd. and Japanese biotech stock PeptiDream Inc. Short sellers seek to benefit from a decline in a company’s share price.

Shetty founded NMC in 1975 after moving to Abu Dhabi from his native India. He created Finablr two years ago to consolidate his financial brands before listing it on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.

Block said he didn’t anticipate NMC’s shareholding drama.

“I wouldn’t have been able to predict that we’d get these bizarre disclosures about unclear share ownership coming out of the company,” he said in a Feb. 13 phone interview. “This has been obviously a more dramatic unraveling than we usually see.”

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News Network
March 6,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 6: Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said he has asked police to enhance the security of Congress leaders and former ministers UT Khader and Tanveer Sait.

"Threat perception has been there for some time now, all the more after the attack on Tanveer Sait. Their (Congress MLAs UT Khader and Tanveer Sait) security is necessary. I have intimidated them. I have asked police to enhance their security," Bommai told media persons.

"After the assault on Tanveer Sait, the police told me that there were some intelligence reports and asked to me to take proper security. They have given one police man for the name's sake," Khader said.

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