Iraqi mosques closed by Sunnis in protest
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Sunni religious leaders said Saturday they closed the sect’s mosques in Baghdad indefinitely to protest attacks targeting clerics and worshippers, highlighting the country’s deepening sectarian rift. The closures came as violence across the country killed 12 people Saturday.
Sheik Mustafa al-Bayati, a member of a council of senior Sunni scholars that issue religious edicts, said the decision taken Thursday came into effect Saturday. He said mosques would reopen today.
Many mosques appeared to comply. In Baghdad’s Sunni northern district of Azamiya, a banner at the closed gate of the hallowed Abu Hanifa mosque read: “The mosque is closed until further notice because of the targeting of imams, preachers and worshippers.”
The mosque closures were “prompted by the systematic targeting of and injustice against Sunni clerics, mosques and worshippers,” al-Bayati said. “Today, it is not forbidden to shed Sunni blood. ... For 11 months, we have been saying peacefully that we are facing injustice but the government closes its ears.”
He didn’t accuse any group of being behind the attacks, but said “the weakness of the security forces is exploited by (Shiite) militias.”
Official: Brotherhood is backing Egypt unrest
CAIRO – Egypt’s interior minister said Saturday his forces have foiled several attempted terror attacks and arrested militant leaders, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of mobilizing and financing some of them to cause unrest.
Mohammed Ibrahim’s comments were the first detailed account offered by a senior Egyptian official to back claims that the Brotherhood, the group of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, is responsible for attacks against security, government institutions and the country’s Coptic minority. However, he didn’t provide proof to back up his claims.
The wave of violence intensified after the government carried out a bloody crackdown on Morsi supporters that killed hundreds in August.
Ibrahim accused the Brotherhood of enlisting the help of militant groups linked to al-Qaida and Palestinian extremist groups operating in the Gaza Strip after the popular protests against Morsi that started on June 30. The military forced Morsi out of office days later.
The Brotherhood repeatedly has denied government claims that it uses or condones violence. Instead, they accuse the government of trying to stymie the group as part of its crackdown against it.
Turkish ambassador expelled from Egypt
CAIRO – Egypt downgraded diplomatic relations Saturday with Turkey and expelled its ambassador from Cairo, a sharp escalation in tensions between the two countries that mounted after a military coup ousted the country’s Islamist president this summer.
In a quick reaction, Turkey reciprocated by declaring the Egyptian ambassador “persona non grata” and downgrading relations with Egypt to the same level. Egypt’s ambassador hadn’t been in the country since August over the turmoil.
Saturday’s decisions, which fall short of closing diplomatic missions in the two countries, are a dramatic reversal of the warming relations between the two countries over the past year.
Egypt’s interim government vehemently has protested remarks by Turkish leaders criticizing the popularly backed military coup that toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The decision Saturday followed another critical comment by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday.
Government airstrikes kill 44 people in Syria
BEIRUT – A string of government airstrikes on rebel-held areas in northern Syria killed at least 44 people Saturday, activists said, as al-Qaida-linked rebels captured one of the country’s major oil fields in the east.
An attack on the rebel-held town of al-Bab near the northern city of Aleppo was the deadliest of the three raids, killing 22 people, said Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Fighter jets also bombed two rebel-held districts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Government warplanes missed their target in the Halwaniyeh neighborhood and sent bombs into a crowded vegetable market, killing 15 people, Abdurrahman said. Seven people died in a third airstrike in the Karam el-Beik district, according to the activist group. The Observatory has been documenting the conflict by relying on a network of activists on the ground.
Associated Press
