Saudi Arabia’s Shia-populated east has been the scene of periodic clashes involving security forces after demonstrations broke out nearly five years ago alongside a Shia-led protest movement in neighbouring Bahrain.
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Iraq forces extend Ramadi control, rescue civilians
Warplanes carried out nine air strikes near Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which fell to Islamic State fighters in 2014. Police chief Hadi Irzayij said the suspected militants “were attempting to flee Ramadi by blending in with civilians”.
Protesters shouted the slogans “The people want the fall of the regime”, and “Down with the al-Saud family”, reminiscent of the 2011 protests.
Gunmen attack Indian air force base near Pakistan border
One Indian security source blamed the attack on a Pakistan-based militant group, but said it posed no threat to civilians. The Western Air Command chief, Air Marshal S.B.
The speaker of the Iranian parliament said Saudi Arabia, which is founded upon an ultraconservative Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism, would face a “maelstrom” from which it would not escape.
Funerals held for Palestinians killed in months of violence
During that same period more than 15,000 Palestinians and 350 Israelis were wounded, the United Nations said on Wednesday. Police said the motive for the attack remained unclear, and little was known about the attacker who had his face covered.
In Lebanon, senior Shiite cleric Abdul-Amir Kabalan described al-Nimr’s execution as “a grave mistake that could have been avoided with a royal amnesty”. Protest rallies were held in Bahrain, where police used tear gas on the crowds, as well as in India, in Saudi’s Eastern Province and outside the Saudi embassy in London.
The execution threatens to stoke further sectarian tensions between the regional rivals who back opposing sides in civil wars in Yemen and Syria.
“The Saudi authorities… put them (the Shi’ites executed) together with terrorist bands and groups which had committed crimes against civilians”.
Al-Nimr’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, wrote a series of comments on Twitter after the execution, expressing hope that “we will overcome sectarianism to be in a better position”. His funeral would likely have attracted thousands of supporters, including large numbers of protesters. With the exception of the Sheikh and three Shi’a Muslim activists, the others were convicted of involvement with al-Qa’ida.
The wave of condemnation could harm Saudi Arabia’s efforts to form an Islamic alliance against the jihadist militants of Islamic State.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini voiced “strong opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and in particular in cases of mass executions”. “Appalled by reports about recent executions in #Saudi”.
“This case has also the potential of inflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region, with risky consequences”, she said, urging Saudi authorities to promote reconciliation between different communities in the country.
Al Nimr’s family said they were shocked but did not want his execution to result in any more bloodshed.
But Saturday’s execution of top cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr drew calls in Iraq for the Saudi embassy to remain shuttered.
However, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging Saudis from terrorism after bombings and shootings by Sunni militants in Saudi Arabia over the past year killed dozens and the Islamic State called on followers there to stage attacks.
Politicians, militias and a prominent cleric in Shia-majority Iraq called on the government to sever ties with its neighbour, just one day after Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Baghdad for the first time since 1990.
Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on Saturday including Nimr, whom the government had accused of inciting violence against the police.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch criticized the executions.
Reprieve says the 47 people whose execution was announced Saturday include four Shiite dissidents.
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He was an outspoken government critic and a key leader of Shiite protests in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric and central figure in those protests, was also among those executed. They say the decapitated bodies are occasionally left on display.
