NINETY students stoned to death for having 'strange hair and tight clothes'

More than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after Iraq's interior ministry dubbed it 'devil worshipping'.

Iraq's Moral Police released a statement on the interior ministry's website condemning the 'emo phenomenon' among Iraqi youth, declaring its intent to 'eliminate' the trend.

The move is part of a wider clampdown on young people taking on what government officials call 'Western appearances' in Iraq.

'The Emo phenomenon or devil worshipping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger,' the statement read.

'They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities,'.

Since the statement was published religious extremists have been harassing and killing teenagers with 'strange' or 'emo' appearances.

A group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists, activists told the Cairo-based al-Akhbar website.

The armed men are said to belong to 'one of the most extremist religious groups' in Iraq.

'First they throw concrete blocks at the boy's arms, then at his legs, then the final blow is to his head, and if he is not dead then, they start all over again,' one person who managed to escape told Al-Akhbar.

Iraq's moral police was granted approval by the Ministry of Education to enter Baghdad schools and pinpoint students with such appearances, according to the interior ministry's statement.

The exact death toll remains unclear, but Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, an NGO dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges 'between 90 and 100.'

'What's most disturbing about this is that they're so young,' she said.

Read More...

Gunmen kill 27 in raids on road checkpoints

Gunmen disguised as police raided checkpoints and homes in western Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 members of the security forces, police said, in an attack the authorities said bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

The attacks in Anbar, once Iraq's most violent province, raise concern that Iraq's branch of al Qaeda may regain a foothold there after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December.

Anbar was almost entirely under control of al Qaeda during the height of Iraq's insurgency from 2005-07, when the militants were defeated by local tribesmen and U.S. forces.

Mohammed Fathi, spokesman for the governor of Anbar province, said the latest attack bore the "fingerprints of al Qaeda."

A police source, who had been ferrying victims to the hospital morgue, said gunmen dressed in uniforms of the security forces had driven from checkpoint to checkpoint slaughtering police in Haditha, a town 190 km (120 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

"The gunmen used security vehicles and from 2:00 a.m. (11:00 p.m.) until 3:30 a.m. they carried out attacks on checkpoints in central Haditha and the nearby town of Barwana," the police source, who did not give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters in Fallujah.

Fathi, the governor's spokesman, said the attackers arrived at checkpoints with fake arrest warrants, confiscated the mobile phones of the police guards and executed them.

Another police source said one of the damaged vehicles left behind had fliers signed by an al Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, which threatened Iraqi police forces with death if they did not abandon their jobs.

The 27 dead included a lieutenant colonel and a captain who were dragged out of their homes in Haditha and killed, the police source said. A curfew was imposed on the town and its exits were sealed off.

One gunman was killed in the attacks, the source said. Three policemen survived the attacks with wounds and were being treated at Haditha hospital.

A medical source at Hadita hospital confirmed the hospital had received 27 bodies of slain victims and was treating three wounded.

CATASTROPHE

Fathi said the attackers may have intended to derail a summit of Arab leaders set for later this month. Iraq is due to host a summit of the Arab League for the first time since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and its leaders have been at pains to say security is under control.

Al Qaeda and other Sunni militant groups oppose the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad and say they will continue to fight despite the withdrawal of U.S. forces last year.

They have continued to strike mainly against the security forces. Coordinated early morning attacks that mainly targeted police in Shi'ite areas killed at least 60 people across the country on February 23.

In Anbar in January, 10 people were killed when gunmen wearing explosive belts stormed a police building in provincial capital Ramadi.

Iraqi political analyst Ibrahim al-Suamidaie blamed the decentralised security structure in the country for the ease with which gunmen are able to exploit weaknesses in the police forces.

"The fact that the security portfolio is not centralised is the biggest reason. This is not just a breach, it's a catastrophe," he told Reuters.

Once an al Qaeda stronghold and Iraq's most violent province in 2004-06, Anbar was subdued in 2006-07 when tribal leaders and former insurgents turned against the fighters. Tribal "awakening" militia joined U.S. forces and forced al Qaeda out.

Tension has risen between Anbar and the Shi'ite-led central government in recent months, following an arrest campaign against former members of Saddam's banned Baath party.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Suadad al-Salhy and Yara Bayoumy in Baghdad; Writing by Yara Bayoumy and Peter Graff Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Read More...

Suicide bomber blows off his legs as grenade he hurled at police bounces off tree and explodes at his feet (PHOTOS)

A bungling Iranian bomber blew off his own legs when he hurled a grenade at Thai police outside a Bangkok school - which bounced off a tree and then exploded at his feet.

It came after he had blown up his own home and then hurled a grenade at a taxi driver who would not accept him as a passenger, the Bangkok Post reports.

Police allegedly found an Iranian ID card in a satchel close to the blast in the Thai capital, and unconfirmed reports suggest he is called Saeid Moradi.

Four people, three men and one woman, were injured in the explosions which come the day after Israeli diplomats were targeted in simultaneous car bombings, also believed to have been carried out by Iran.

It is not yet known if yesterday's and today's attacks are linked - but Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: 'We can't rule out any possibility.'

Read More...

Iran Sentences Former U.S. Marine To Death, Accused Him Of Spying

An American man has been sentenced to death in Iran after a court there convicted him of working for the CIA and going to the Persian nation to spy.

The family of Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, a 28-year-old former U.S. Marine, says he was in Iran to visit his grandmothers.

According to Iran's state-run Press TV, "the verdict was issued by Tehran's Revolution Court on Monday after the defendant was found guilty of collaboration with the US government and its intelligence agency, the CIA, against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Associated Press reports that Hekmati was born in Arizona, graduated from high school in Michigan and was an Arabic translator while in the Marines. The wire service adds that "his family is of Iranian origin. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Mich., has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested."

"On Dec. 18," the AP adds, "Iran's state TV broadcast video of Hekmati delivering a purported confession in which he said he was part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's Intelligence Ministry. ... It is not clear exactly when he was arrested. Iranian news reports have said he was detained in late August or early September."

Under Iranian law, Hekmati reportedly has 20 days to appeal.

As Reuters notes, Hekmati's conviction and death sentence are "likely to aggravate U.S.-Iranian tension already high because of Tehran's nuclear work. ... The U.S. government has demanded Hekmati's release, saying he has been "falsely" accused. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last month that Iran had not permitted diplomats from the Swiss Embassy, which represents American interests in Iran, to see him before or during his trial."

In related news, The Guardian says "the announcement on Monday of Hekmati's death sentence came as Keyhan, a newspaper with close connections to the conservative clerical establishment, reported that Iran has started enriching uranium at the Fordow plant, a heavily fortified site dug under a mountain near the city of Qom."

Read More...

Iranian nuke scientist shot to death

A nuclear scientist was shot dead on Saturday by unknown assailants on a motorcycle, the latest expert with links to Iran's controversial atomic programme to be targeted, local media reported.

"A physics professor and nuclear scientist was assassinated a few hours ago in front of his house in Tehran," Mehr news agency reported at 1430 GMT.

The ISNA news agency identified the victim as Dariush Rezaei, 35, an expert with links to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI). Fars news agency said he was also associated with the defence ministry.

Top provincial security official Safar Ali Baratlou told the ILNA news agency that no one had yet been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Mehr reported that Rezaie's wife was also wounded in the attack and rushed to hospital.

It said Rezaei studied nuclear engineering in Tehran's Amir Kabir University, had a degree in neutron physics and undertook research for the AEOI.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have disappeared in recent years or been targeted in attacks the Islamic republic has blamed on the United States and Israel, which suspect Tehran's atomic programme masks a nuclear weapons drive.

Last November 29, Majid Shahriari was killed in the capital when men on motorcycles attached a bomb to his car, and current nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani survived a similar assassination attempt on the same day.

Abbasi Davani had been targeted by UN Security Council sanctions under Resolution 1747 adopted in March 2007. He was identified as a senior defence ministry and armed forces logistics scientist.

Another top Iranian nuclear scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was killed in a bomb blast on January 12, 2010, which Tehran blamed on "mercenaries" in the pay of the US and Israeli intelligence services.

Following the attacks, Tehran vowed to boost security for its nuclear scientists.

Earlier this year the authorities announced they had arrested the man behind the bombing that killed Ali Mohammadi, saying they had cracked a network working for the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Iranian leaders have also blamed arch-foes Israel and Washington for the unexplained disappearances of several of their military officials and nuclear scientists in recent years, and for a computer attack by the Stuxnet malware in the summer of 2010 against its centrifuges enriching uranium.

Iran is at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear programme, and the most recent round of talks between Tehran and the world powers broke down in Istanbul in January.

The Islamic republic is currently under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

The United States and the 27-member European Union have also imposed other unilateral punitive measures against Tehran.

Iran, however, remains adamant that it will push ahead with its controversial enrichment activities, which can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the fissile material for an atomic warhead.

Tehran insists it will use the enriched uranium to fuel its future nuclear power plants, and that its atomic programme is entirely peaceful.

In June, Abbasi Davani announced plans to triple Iran's capacity to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity, which Tehran says will be used to fuel its sole medical research reactor in the capital.

Iran began its higher-grade enrichment in February 2010, following the collapse of negotiations with the West over the acquisition of nuclear fuel.

Read other News

Read More...