Islamic State group kills 50 Iraqis from same tribe, including women and children
Islamic State group kills 50 Iraqis from same tribe, including women and children
BAGHDAD — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 Iraqi men, women and children from the same tribe on Sunday, officials said, in the latest targeting of the group by militants.
The killings, all committed in public, raise the death toll suffered by the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe in recent days to some 150, suggesting IS fighters now view them as a threat. Some Sunnis in the volatile province had previously supported the local expansion of IS and other militants in December.
Meanwhile, separate attacks around Baghdad killed at least 19 people, authorities said.
Sunday’s attack on the Sunni tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi, the provincial capital. There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children, lining them up and shooting them one by one, senior tribesman Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud told The Associated Press. The militants also kidnapped another 17 people, he said.
An official with the Anbar governor’s office corroborated the tribesman’s account. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists.
Jerusalem on edge as Israeli, Palestinian politicians stoke religious fervor over shrine
JERUSALEM — This combustible city at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been edging toward a new conflagration, with politicians on both sides stoking religious fervor over an ancient Jerusalem shrine sacred to Muslims and Jews.
After months of escalating violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday made his clearest attempt yet to cool tempers, saying he won’t allow changes to a long-standing ban on Jewish worship at the Muslim-run site, despite such demands from ultranationalists in his coalition.
Netanyahu’s reassurances to Muslims came just days after the religious feud over the Old City shrine, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, threatened to spin out of control.
Israel closed the compound for a day last week, a rare move, after a Palestinian shot and wounded a prominent activist who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the site.
Angered by the closure, Jordan, the custodian of the mosque compound, warned it might seek diplomatic sanctions unless Israel halts what a Jordanian official said were “repeated violations” at the site. The U.S. has urged Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to show restraint.
Seniors could be key to medical marijuana initiative in Florida; some call the drug a godsend
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — The debate over legalizing medical marijuana in Florida constantly generates talk of young people potentially flooding the polls. But seniors are the most reliable voters and could be key to the outcome of the measure.
Though polling on Amendment 2 has been erratic, seniors have been showing a level of interest in the initiative that underscores the fact they may benefit most from its passage.
“You get older, you get sick, you start getting diseases, your bones stop working as well as they used to and you’re presented with this pharmacopoeia of different drugs that you have to take just to get through the day,” said Ben Pollara, who leads United for Care, the pro-Amendment 2 campaign. “To the extent that seniors can use marijuana to supplement or replace any of those drugs I think is a good thing.”
Similar arguments have been made by older people themselves, who have turned up at events across the state, even when they’ve been intended for more youthful crowds. Such was the case at a recent forum at Broward College: It was held at an on-campus theater, with a promise of pizza for the droves of young people who passed by. But inside, the audience was full of faces far older than expected.
The Associated Press