Gunman killed after deadly attack at Jeddah palace gate

Agencies
October 8, 2017

Jeddah, Oct 8: A gunman on Saturday drove up to a gate of the king's palace in the Saudi city of Jeddah and opened fire, killing at least two security guards and wounding three others before being shot dead, according to officials.

The attacker, identified by the interior ministry as Mansour al-Amri, a 28-year-old Saudi national, was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and three Molotov cocktails.

Amri disembarked from his vehicle at a checkpoint outside the western gate to the Al-Salam Palace and started shooting, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Royal guards shot him dead on the spot.

The palace, where the royal family conducts official business during the summer months, is located next to the King Abdulaziz Road and Andalus Road on the waterfront of the Red Sea coastal city.

Saudi King Salman is currently outside the kingdom on a state visit to Russia.

Embassy warning

Amri did not have a criminal record or any known connection to armed groups, said Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki, speaking by phone to al-Arabiya television.

An investigation was under way to determine his motive for the attack, added Turki.

Earlier on Saturday, the United States Embassy in Saudi Arabia had warned US citizens to exercise caution in the area around the palace after reports on social media of an attack there.

"Due to the possibility of ongoing police activity, American citizens are advised to exercise caution when travelling through the area," the embassy had warned.

Groups such as al-Qaeda and more recently Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) have carried out a number of attacks in Saudi Arabia.

Attackers have targeted Shia mosques in the country's eastern provinces where much of its Shia minority is based, as well as security forces.

This week, Saudi police raided hideouts of a "terror" cell linked to ISIL, killing two people and arresting five, according to the national security agency.

The State Security Agency said police raided three hideouts in the capital, Riyadh, and exchanged gunfire in one of them, the SPA news agency reported on Thursday.es in the country's eastern provinces where much of its Shia minority is based, as well as security forces.

In July this year, Saudi authorities said they foiled an attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, which they blamed on ISIL.

Hundreds of Saudi

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News Network
October 27,2024

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The Israeli regime’s forces have carried out intense bombing raids against six buildings in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 45 people.

Dozens more were also wounded after the raids targeted the structures, including a house belonging to a Palestinian family named as Abu Shidiq, on Saturday.

The attacks came as the severity of the regime’s aggression has forced the Palestinian Civil Defense to cease its activities in the northern side of the coastal sliver, leaving civilians there to their own devices.

Commenting on the situation, Director-General of the Gaza Health Ministry, Medhat Abbas said more than 900 Palestinians had been killed over the past weeks during the Israeli campaign that has targeted the northern areas.

Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in the north, has been a special focus of the campaign that has either killed all of the facility’s doctors or forced them to flee, with the exception of three physicians, who remain there, he added.

“The occupation is committing genocide by destroying the health system in Gaza,” Abbas noted.

The regime embarked on implementing a so-called “Generals’ Plan” in northern Gaza earlier in the month, deploying hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of forces with immense firepower towards its realization.

The plan seeks to tighten the regime’s siege against the areas, cut off humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians inside, and label those who remain there as combatants so it could target and kill them after declaring the areas "closed military zones.”

The plan is part of a genocidal war that the regime launched against the Gaza Strip last October, during which it has killed more than 42,924 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 100,833.

Also on Saturday, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group, called on the United States, the regime’s biggest supporter, to stop the “systematic extermination of an entire population” in Gaza.

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News Network
October 22,2024

Bengaluru, Oct 22: Torrential rains wreaked havoc in Karnataka’s capital on Monday night, leading to significant flight disruptions at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). According to airport authorities, over 20 flights were delayed due to the downpour, as reported by ANI.

Among the diversions were an Air India flight from Delhi and three IndiGo flights from Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chandigarh, all rerouted to Chennai. A Thai Lion Air flight from Thailand also had to be diverted to Chennai amid the heavy rainfall.

After western Bengaluru bore the brunt of Sunday’s rains, it was the northern, southeastern, and eastern parts of the city that were pounded by intense thundershowers on Monday. Rainfall across the city varied from light to very heavy, leaving many areas waterlogged.

By 11 PM, Sahakaranagar and Yelahanka in northern Bengaluru had received 154.4 mm and 110 mm of rainfall, respectively, according to data from Weather Union, a platform for crowd-sourced weather information. Other areas that saw heavy downpours included Devanahalli and Koramangala (88.2 mm each), HSR Layout (81.6 mm), and BEL Road (70.4 mm).

While RR Nagar, the most affected neighborhood on Sunday, saw a significant drop with only 19.4 mm of rainfall on Monday evening, other areas faced relentless showers. HAL airport recorded 42.3 mm of rain until 8:30 PM, with a monthly total of 228.5 mm, far exceeding the normal average of 177.3 mm.

Kempegowda International Airport recorded 105 mm of rainfall, while GKVK saw 21.2 mm as rains intensified late into the night, leaving northern and eastern Bengaluru grappling with the aftermath.

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News Network
October 21,2024

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Mangaluru: Forest officials successfully captured a leopard that strayed into the kitchen of a house in Akkasaligara Keri, Mulki, on the outskirts of Mangaluru, during the early hours of Sunday, October 20.

Following multiple complaints from residents about leopard sightings, forest department officials had placed cages at various locations in Mulki. According to Deputy RFO Manjunath Ganiga, locals had reported spotting a leopard in the area, prompting the department to set up a cage about a kilometer from the affected house.

At approximately 10 p.m., the leopard entered the house and made its way into the kitchen. The family quickly locked the kitchen door and contacted the forest department for assistance. The forest officials, using a cage and a net, managed to trap the leopard around 2:45 a.m. The animal was later examined by veterinarians and released back into the wild.

Locals suspect that up to three leopards may be roaming the area.

The operation to capture the leopard was led by RFO Kiran Kumar, with assistance from Deputy RFOs Nagesh Billava and Manjunath Ganiga, along with forest department staff members Chandrashekar and Shankar.

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