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WASHINGTON — A man US officials called the leader of the Daesh militant group in Syria was killed on Tuesday in a drone strike, the Pentagon said.

Maher Al Agal was killed while riding a motorcycle near Jindires in northern Syria, and one of his top aides was “seriously injured”, Pentagon Central Command spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn told AFP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed Agal was killed in a drone strike.

The volunteer Syrian Civil Defence Force, known as the “White Helmets”, said one person was killed and another injured in a strike that targeted a motorcycle outside Aleppo, but did not identify the victims.

There was little information available about Agal, whom the observatory called the Daesh governor for the Levant.

The US Central Command called him “one of the top five” leaders of Daesh overall.

“In addition to being a senior leader within the group, Al Agal was responsible for aggressively pursuing the development of Daesh networks outside of Iraq and Syria,” they said in a statement.

According to a spokesman for the US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, both the men who were targeted had links to Ahrar Al Sharqiya, an armed group operating in northern Syria.

The group has integrated former leaders and members of Daesh and other terrorist groups, and has conducted attacks against Kurdish targets inside Turkish-controlled areas of northern Syria.

Ahrar Al Sharqiya was responsible for the 2019 assassination of prominent Kurdish female politician Hevrin Khalaf, which sparked international condemnation.

The US Treasury placed the group on its sanctions blacklist in July 2021.

“Ahrar Al Sharqiya has committed numerous crimes against civilians, particularly Syrian Kurds, including unlawful killings, abductions, torture and seizures of private property,” the Treasury said.

It said the group controls a large prison complex outside of Aleppo “where hundreds have been executed since 2018”.

The prison is also used to operate a kidnapping-for-ransom operation that targets businessmen and opposition politicians in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, the Treasury said.

The last two targeted killings of Daesh leaders took place in Turkish-controlled areas of northern Syria, where groups like Ahrar Al Sharqiya are active and have local knowledge of the terrain and families.

The strike came five months after a nighttime US raid in the town of Atme, which led to the death of the overall Daesh  leader, Abu Ibrahim Al Qurashi.

US officials said Qurashi died when he detonated a bomb to avoid capture.

“The removal of these ISIS [Daesh] leaders will disrupt the terrorist organisation’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks,” the Central Command said.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Hundreds of thousands of Hajj pilgrims began streaming out of Mecca Thursday ahead of the highlight of the annual rites, which have attracted huge crowds despite the continuing pandemic and unforgiving heat.

Many worshippers made the journey on foot to Mina, seven kilometres from Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, where they circled the imposing black Kaaba at the start of the rituals on Wednesday.

Dressed in simple robes, the pilgrims will spend the night in air-conditioned white tents in Mina, which sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains and is transformed each year into a vast encampment.

"I feel great. This is all to be closer to God," Tunisian pilgrim Khaled Bin Jomaa, 44, said as he entered the encampment on foot, carrying an umbrella and a prayer mat.

The crowds, capped at 1 million including 850,000 from abroad chosen by lottery, are the biggest at the Hajj since 2019 after two COVID-hit years when only tens of thousands were allowed to take part.

All the worshippers are fully vaccinated and submitted negative PCR tests, but the rituals are taking place against the backdrop of a resurgence of COVID-19 in the region, with some Gulf countries tightening restrictions to keep outbreaks in check.

Upon reaching Mina, pilgrims were handed small bags containing masks and sanitiser, and ambulances were parked at the many entrances.

Baking sun 

Temperatures climbed to 42°C  on Wednesday, and four hospitals and 26 health centres have been prepared at Mina to treat pilgrims who might fall ill.

“We have taken all precautions. We have doctors here ready to interfere in case needed,” said Ahmad Al Zinani, a camp manager.

On Friday comes the highlight of the Hajj: ascending Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.

Worshippers will pray and recite the Koran for several hours at the mountain and sleep nearby.

On Saturday, they will gather pebbles and perform the symbolic “stoning of the devil”.

The Hajj, usually one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings, is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives.

Saudi state media reported that Mauritania’s president and Indonesia’s vice president were among the pilgrims landing in Jeddah on Thursday to perform the Hajj.

In 2019, some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world participated in the Hajj which poses a considerable security challenge and has seen several disasters over the years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 people.

Tight security 

The rituals are being performed under strict security measures that include police checkpoints in parts of Mecca. In 1979, gunmen barricaded themselves inside the Grand Mosque in an assault that left 153 dead, according to the official toll.

The Commander of the Air Force Group participating in this hajj season, Colonel Pilot Khaled Bin Abdullah Al Mutairi, told state media Wednesday that military helicopters will be used “around the clock... to support the public security”.

Overseas pilgrims, who were banned from the hajj in 2020 and 2021 to prevent COVID infections, are back in the mountainous region this year to fill its hotel rooms and visit its shops as business owners hope to recover huge losses.

Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, more than 9,000 of them fatal. Some 67 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country of over 34 million people.

The Hajj ministry has said it is working on the highest levels of health precautions in light of the pandemic and the emergence of new variants. However, a requirement to wear masks has been largely ignored.

KHARTOUM — Pro-democracy groups in Sudan announced a "revolutionary council" on Thursday to close ranks against coup leader General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, rejecting his offer of a civilian government, as protesters keep pressing for his resignation.

Burhan led a coup in October last year that derailed a transition to civilian rule, unleashing near-weekly protests and prompting key donors to freeze much-needed funding.

The transitional government he uprooted was forged between the military and civilian factions in 2019, following mass protests and a sit-in outside army headquarters that prompted the military to oust long-time president Omar Al Bashir.

But in a surprise move on Monday, Burhan vowed to make way for a civilian government — an offer quickly rejected by the country's main civilian umbrella group as a "ruse".

On Thursday, pro-democracy groups, including local resistance committees, announced their plans to establish a revolutionary council in opposition to Burhan.

This "revolutionary council will make it possible to regroup revolutionary forces under the orders of a unified leadership", Manal Siam, a pro-democracy co-ordinator, told reporters.

The council will consist of "100 members, half of whom will be activists from resistance committees", according to another coordinator, Mohammed Al Jili.

The rest of the new organisation will come from political parties, unions, rebel movements opposed to the military and relatives of those killed in the repression of protests, Jili added.

A total of 114 people have been killed in a crackdown against protesters since the October coup, according to pro-democracy medics.

Activists are deeply sceptical of Burhan’s promise to make way for a civilian government, not least because he pledged at the same time to establish a new “Supreme Council of the Armed Forces”.

Opponents and experts foresee this new body being used to side-line any new government and maintain the military’s wide-reaching economic interests, under the pretext of “defence and security” imperatives.

Burhan has also said he will disband the country’s ruling Sovereign Council — established as the leading institution of the post-Bashir transition — and on Wednesday he fired civilian personnel serving on that body.

The protests against Burhan received a new lease of life last Thursday, when tens of thousands gathered, and they have evolved into new sit-ins in some areas.

Young protesters on Thursday sat on stone barricades and on felled pylons in the capital Khartoum, while also maintaining sit-ins in the suburbs and in Jazeera, an agricultural province to the south of the capital.

TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreign diplomats including a Briton, accusing them of “spying”, the Fars news agency and state television said on Wednesday.

But the British government quickly denied that any of its personnel had been arrested, describing the reports as “completely false”.

The developments coincide with heightening tensions between Tehran and world powers over long-stalled attempts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal and a recent uptick in confirmed detentions of Western nationals in the country.

“The Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence service identified and arrested diplomats from foreign embassies who were spying in Iran,” Fars said, adding that a British diplomat was subsequently expelled from the country.

State television however reported that the Briton, identified as Giles Whitaker, the UK government’s deputy head of mission in Iran, was only expelled from “the area” where the diplomats had been arrested in central Iran.

State television accused him of “carrying out intelligence operations” in military areas.

Video showed images of a man presented as Whitaker speaking in a room.

A state TV journalist said the diplomat “was among those who went to the Shahdad Desert with his family as tourists”, referring to an area in central Iran.

“As the images show, this person took photos... in a prohibited area where at the same time a military exercise was taking place,” the broadcaster said.

Britain’s government categorically denied the reports.

“Reports of the arrest of a British diplomat in Iran are completely false,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in London.

Detainees ‘took soil samples’ 

The number, nationality and date of arrest of the other diplomats detained was not immediately clear.

But state television said that “apparently Israel wants to open a file on the possible military dimension of Iran’s nuclear program, using nationals from third countries who are linked to foreign embassies”, it charged.

Israel is staunchly opposed to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, perceiving it as a threat to its security.

State television also showed images of a man it identified as “Maciej Walczak, head of the microbiology department at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland”.

“This university is linked to the Zionist regime,” it said, referring to Israel.

Walczak, whose nationality was not specified, “entered Iran with three other people in the context of scientific exchanges but he went to the desert region of Shahdad as a tourist while missile tests were being carried out”, state television said.

It said he took rock and soil samples.

Fars meanwhile said those arrested took rock samples in the desert for “espionage” purposes.

State television presented another man, identified as “Ronald, the spouse of the Austrian embassy’s cultural adviser” who it said went to a village in the Damghan area east of Tehran and “took rock samples”.

He was also accused of “filming a military area in Tehran”, the broadcaster said.

Nuclear impasse, other detentions 

The US walked out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 under then president Donald Trump, who proceeded to reimpose biting sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to step away from many of the nuclear commitments it made under the accord.

Iran has held direct talks with remaining parties to the deal — and indirect talks with the US — since April 2021 in a bid to restore the deal, but those negotiations have been at an impasse since March.

Qatar last week hosted indirect talks in Doha in a bid to get the Vienna process back on track, but those discussions broke up after two days without any breakthrough.

Over a dozen Western nationals are held in Iran in what activists argue is a policy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions from the West.

Belgium’s parliament on Wednesday approved a controversial prisoner-swap treaty with Iran in a first reading of a text that still has to be submitted to a full vote to be ratified.

Also on Wednesday Iran accused a French couple detained in May while on holiday of allegedly “undermining the security” of the country, the judicial authority said.

The French government has condemned their arrest as “baseless” and demanded their immediate release.

Last month Amnesty International called on the British government to investigate Iran’s six-year detention of dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, deploring it as “an act of hostage-taking”.

She was released home to the UK along with another detainee early this year, after the UK agreed to pay a longstanding debt to Tehran.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — The biggest Hajj pilgrimage since the COVID pandemic began kicked off on Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of mostly maskless worshippers expected to circle Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca.

One million fully vaccinated Muslims, including 850,000 from abroad, are allowed at this year’s Hajj, a major break from two years of drastically curtailed numbers due to the pandemic.

At Mecca’s Grand Mosque, pilgrims performed the “tawaf”, the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the large cubic structure draped in golden-embroidered black cloth that Muslims around the world turn towards to pray.

Authorities said last month that masks would be required at the site, but that has been largely ignored so far this week.

Many pilgrims held umbrellas to block the hot sun as the temperature climbed to 42ºC.

The Saudi health ministry has prepared 23 hospitals and 147 health centres in Mecca and Medina, the second-holiest city in Islam, to accommodate pilgrims, state media reported this week.

That includes allocating more than 1,000 beds for patients requiring intensive care and more than 200 specifically for heatstroke patients, while dispatching more than 25,000 health workers to respond to cases as they arise.

The Hajj poses a considerable security challenge and has seen several disasters over the years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 people.

No incidents had been reported as of Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s all going well so far. I have moved around a lot and saw rules are being respected,” said Faten Abdel Moneim, a 65-year-old Egyptian mother of four.

“I hope it stays this way.”

Five days of rituals 

This year’s Hajj is larger than the pared-down versions staged in 2020 and 2021 but still smaller than in normal times.

In 2019, some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world participated in the annual event — a key pillar of Islam that able-bodied Muslims must undertake at least once in their lives.

But after that, the coronavirus outbreak forced a dramatic downsizing. Just 60,000 fully vaccinated citizens and residents of the kingdom took part in 2021, up from a few thousand in 2020.

The pilgrimage consists of a series of religious rites which are completed over five days in Islam’s holiest city and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the pilgrims will move to Mina, around 5 kilometres away from the Grand Mosque, ahead of the main rite at Mount Arafat, where it is believed the Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon.

Four hospitals and 26 health centres are ready to treat pilgrims in Mina, state media said.

This year’s Hajj is restricted to vaccinated Muslims under the age of 65 chosen from millions of applicants through an online lottery system.

Those coming from outside Saudi Arabia were required to submit a negative COVID-19 PCR result from a test taken within 72 hours of travel.

Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, more than 9,000 of them fatal.

‘Too hot’ 

Those attempting to perform the Hajj without a permit face fines of 10,000 Saudi riyals (around $2,600).

Policemen in the mountainous city have set up checkpoints and conducted foot patrols.

Some pilgrims have donned clothing featuring the names and flags of their countries. “Hajj 2020 — Chad” was written on the back of the white robes of one group.

Hosting the Hajj is a matter of prestige and a powerful source of political legitimacy for Saudi Arabia’s rulers.

Costing at least $5,000 per person, the Hajj is also a money-spinner for the world’s biggest oil exporter, which is trying to diversify its economy.

In normal years, the pilgrimage brings in billions of dollars.

These days it represents a chance to showcase the kingdom’s ongoing social transformation, despite persistent complaints about human rights abuses and limits on personal freedoms.

Saudi Arabia now allows women to attend the Hajj unaccompanied by male relatives, a requirement that was dropped last year.

“Being here is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can’t wait for the rest,” said 42-year-old Egyptian pilgrim Naima Mohsen, who came to the Grand Mosque by herself this week.

“My only problem is the weather. It’s just too hot.”audi 

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday as he was attempting to flee an army raid, officials on both sides said.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the man as Rafiq Riyad Ghannem, 20, saying he was shot by Israeli troops in Jaba, a town near the flashpoint city of Jenin in the northern West Bank.

Israel’s military said it had conducted “counterterrorism activity” in Jaba early on Wednesday.

“The soldiers operated according to arrest procedures, which included the use of live fire toward a suspect who was attempting to flee the scene. A hit was identified,” the army said.

“The soldiers provided medical treatment to the suspect, who was later pronounced dead.“

“The incident is under review,” the army added.

The military said that it had arrested 24 suspects and seized a number of weapons in “extensive” overnight operations across the occupied West Bank.

On Sunday, a 17-year-old Palestinian died after being shot a day earlier in another Israeli forces raid in the same town.

At least 50 Palestinians have been killed since late March, mostly in the West Bank, among them suspected militants and non-combatants.

Israeli forces have launched near-daily raids in the West Bank following a series of attacks in Israel in recent months.

Nineteen people — mostly Israeli civilians inside Israel — have been killed mainly in attacks carried out by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Three Arab Israeli attackers have also been killed.