A dozen killed as terrorists attack Iran parliament, Khomeini tomb

June 7, 2017

Tehran, Jun 7: Iran's Parliament (Majlis) and the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in the capital Tehran have come under terrorist attack.

attack

According to reports, a dozen people have been killed in Wednesday's attacks while another 42 have been injured and admitted to 3 hospitals to receive treatment.

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The attack on the parliament happened when at least four gunmen, disguised as women, entered the visitors' hall of the building, opening fire on the security guards there. According to an Interior Ministry statement, the terrorists were all killed before they could make it to the administrative building of the parliament.

The assault has forced a lockdown on the legislature.

Tehran MP Elias Hazrati has said that the assailants were armed with two Kalashnikovs and a handgun.

According to lawmaker Mehdi Kiaee, the situation is under control inside the parliament, while security forces are working to restore calm there.

As seen in the footage below, Anti-Terror Special Forces have been deployed to the Majlis.

An Interior Ministry source said a bomber had blown himself up on the fourth floor of the parliament building, where he was holed up.

Separately, gunmen attacked the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum in Tehran, opening fire on people inside and wounding a number of them.

Tehran terrorist attacks: As they happened

After the attacks ended, the Interior Ministry issued a statement, elaborating on the terror incidents. According to the statement, the first terror group, comprised of two people, entered the mausoleum at around 10:30 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). The first terrorist blew up his explosives but the second was killed during firefight with security forces.

Concurrently with the attack at the mausoleum, the second terror team, which included four people, sought to enter the office building of the parliament but were confronted by security forces, the statement said.

The ministry said that one terrorist blew his explosives up and the three others were killed in shootouts during clashes with security forces as they were seeking to reach upper floors of the parliament building.

It added that the country's Supreme National Security Council will hold a meeting later in the day to investigate different aspects of the attacks.

Tasnim said earlier that the hostage rescue team of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had arrested two “terrorists” at the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum.

An ambulance belonging to the Welfare Organization of Iran was targeted when terrorists fired 16 bullets at the vehicle at the mausoleum. Nobody was injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, IRNA cited an official with the Intelligence Ministry's Counter-terrorism Department as saying that several terrorist teams had entered the capital earlier in the day.

One of the terrorist teams was busted before managing to stage any attacks, while two others attacked the parliament building and the mausoleum. At the shrine, one bomber was killed before setting off his explosives, but another managed to blow himself up.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani condemned the attacks as “cowardly” and said they meant to undermine Tehran's anti-terror fight.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in Turkey for an official visit, also condemned the “indiscriminate” terror attacks. He described terrorism as a global challenge and warned about rising insecurity and terror acts in the region.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 2,2020

Balochistan, May 1: Sajid Hussain, Editor-in-Chief of Balochistan Times, has been found dead in a Swedish town, the police have confirmed.

The Swedish police informed his family on Thursday night that they discovered his body from a river in Uppsala, The Times reported.
The Baloch journalist had been missing from the Swedish city since March 2 this year.

Sajid, 39, left Pakistan in 2012 and had been living as a refugee in Sweden since 2017. He wrote extensively on the suffering of the Balochis at the hands of the Pakistani military establishment.

His work often got him into trouble as the authorities did not like his reporting of Balochistan's forbidden stories, the reason he had to leave and live in exile.

The Baloch journalist was found dead two months after he went missing in Sweden.
Sajid left Pakistan because of security threats from Pakistan Army and its intelligence service ISI.

The spokesperson of the Baloch National Movement, Hammal Haider told news agency: "We are deeply saddened by the demise of prominent Baloch intellectual and writer Sajid Hussain."
"His death is indeed a loss of a great mind for the people of Balochistan. Due to his straightforwardness, he was loved among all journalistic, literary and political circles," added Haider.

"After this incident, we have serious concerns about our members and other Baloch refugees living in the West," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
June 7,2020

Boston, Jun 7: Dozens of scientists doing research funded by Mark Zuckerberg say Facebook should not be letting President Donald Trump use of the social media platform to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements.

The researchers, including 60 professors at leading US research institutions, wrote a letter to the Facebook CEO on Saturday asking that he consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people," especially during the current turmoil over racial injustice.

The letter calls the spread of deliberate misinformation and divisive language the researchers' goal of using technology to prevent and eradicate disease, improving childhood education and reform the criminal justice system.

The researchers' mission "is antithetical to some of the stances that Facebook has been taking, so we're encouraging them to be more on the side of truth and on the right side of history as we've said in the letter, said Debora Marks of Harvard Medical School, one of three professors who organized the letter.

The other organisers are Martin Kampmann of the University of California-San Francisco and Jason Shepherd of the University of Utah.

All have grants from a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative program working to prevent, cure and treat neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The initiative is run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

They said the letter had more than 160 signatories. Shepherd said about 10% are employees of Chan Zuckerberg foundations.

The letter objects specifically to Zuckerberg's decision not to at least flag as a violation of Facebook's community standards Trump's post that stated when the looting starts, the shooting starts after unrest in Minneapolis over the videotaped killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer.

The letter's authors called the post a clear statement of inciting violence.

Twitter had both flagged and demoted a Trump tweet using the same language.

The Associated Press emailed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative press office for comment. It did not immediately respond.

Some Facebook employees have publicly objected to Zuckerberg's refusal to take down or label misleading or incendiary posts by Trump or other politicians. But Zuckerberg who controls a majority of voting shares in the company has so far refused.

On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a post that he would review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions I know many of you think we should have labeled the President's posts in some way last week, he wrote.

"Our current policy is that if content is actually inciting violence, then the right mitigation is to take that content down not let people continue seeing it behind a flag. There is no exception to this policy for politicians or newsworthiness.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 19,2020

Rome, Mar 19: Italy on Wednesday reported 475 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest one-day official toll of any nation since the first case was detected in China late last year.

The total number of deaths in Italy has reached 2,978, more than half of all the cases recorded outside China, while the number of infections stood at 35,713.

The previous record high of 368 deaths was also recorded in Italy, on Sunday. The nation of 60 million has now recorded 34.2 percent of all the deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 across the world.

With the death rate still climbing despite the Mediterranean country entering a second week under an effective lockdown, officials urged Italians to have faith and to stay strong.

"They main thing is, do not give up," Italian National Institute of Health chief Silvio Brusaferro said in a nationally televised press conference.

"It will take a few days before we see the benefits" of containment measures, said Brusaferro. "We must maintain these measures to see their effect, and above all to protect the most vulnerable."

Imposed nationally on March 12, the shutdown of most Italian businesses and a ban on public gatherings are due to expire on March 25.

But school closures and other measures, such as a ban fan attendance at sporting events, are due to run on until April 3.

A top government minister hinted Wednesday that the school closure would be extended well into next month, if not longer.

The rates within Italy itself remained stable, with two-thirds of the deaths -- 1,959 in all -- reported in the northern Lombardy region around Milan, the Italian financial and fashion capital.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.