DUBAI: Iran’s supreme Leader vowed on Thursday to retaliate against those threatening the country’s security after the massacre of Shiite pilgrims, an assault claimed by Daesh which threatens to inflame tensions amid widespread anti-government protests.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the assailants “will surely be punished” and called on Iranians to unite. “We all have a duty to deal with the enemy and its traitorous or ignorant agents,” he said in a statement read on state television a day after the attack killed 15 people.

PARIS: Iranian security forces have killed at least eight people since Wednesday evening as they push on with a deadly crackdown against nearly six weeks of women-led protests, Amnesty International said.
“Iran’s security forces killed at least eight people since last night as they again opened fire on mourners and protesters,” Amnesty said on Thursday, condemning the “reckless and unlawful use of firearms.”

Istanbul, Oct 26, 2022 Agence France Presse: Turkish police on Wednesday arrested the head of Turkey’s doctors’ union after she called for a probe into the army’s alleged use of chemical weapons against Kurdish militants, prosecutors said.
Sebnem Korur Fincanci was being detained on “terror propaganda” charges, said the prosecutor’s office.
Turkey has rejected the allegations made in media outlets close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that its army was using chemical weapons in operations in northern Iraq.

RABAT: Moroccan police said Wednesday they had broken up a people smuggling gang in a northern town near the site of a deadly border tragedy in June.
The DGSN security service said it had arrested 23 suspected smugglers during morning raids in Nador and surrounding areas.
Nador is near the border with the Spanish enclave of Melilla, one of two main European Union territories on African soil and a magnet for migrants fleeing violence across the continent and seeking refuge in Europe.

BEIRUT: The UN has procured tens of millions of dollars in contracts with companies linked to Syrian government-backed individuals sanctioned for human rights abuses, according to a report by two non-governmental groups.
Syria’s uprising turned civil war that started in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. More than 80 percent of Syrians now live in poverty, leaving much of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance.