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A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 4 SepteMber 2017

Annual five-day hajj to Mecca,

Saudi Arabia comes to an end

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) Mecca and surrounding
— The annual five-day Is- areas to perform a number
lamic pilgrimage to Mecca of physically demanding
in Saudi Arabia known as and intricate rites.
hajj is officially over. The pilgrimage is required
Khalid al-Faisal, governor once in a lifetime of all
of Mecca, announced Muslims with the means to
Sunday the formal end of go. Its goal is remission of
the pilgrimage at a news past sins and drawing Mus-
conference in the holy city. lims closer to God.
Hajj draws people from The governor said no ac-
around the world to Sau- cidents were reported this
di Arabia each year. The year. In the past, construc-
crowds, squeezed shoulder tion accidents, disease and
to shoulder in prayer five stampedes have harmed
times a day, fill the city of and killed pilgrims.q

Muslim pilgrims cast stones at three huge stone pillars in the symbolic stoning of the devil, outside
the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. The Hajj is an annual pilgrimage to
Mecca in religious Islamic observance.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
US-led coalition:

IS convoy splits up in eastern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — A 17-bus soldiers captured in 2014. elderly evacuees could
convoy carrying Islamic The coalition said in a state- die.
State militants and civilian ment that one group re- Hezbollah said that six buses
evacuees from the Leba- mains in the open desert to are still in areas controlled
non-Syria border has split the northwest of the town by the Syrian government
into two groups as it tries to of Abu Kamal, bordering and warned that if they are
reach extremist-held terri- Iraq, and another group hit civilians will be killed. It
tory further east, the U.S.- has headed west toward added that if aid does not
led coalition said Sunday. the historic town of Palmy- reach the convoy “only the
The evacuees were al- ra. It added that the coali- Americans will bear the re-
lowed to relocate under a tion “will not condone” IS sponsibility” for what hap-
deal brokered by the Leb- fighters moving further east pens.
anon’s Hezbollah militant toward the Iraqi border. The coalition said food and
group that has angered The statement said that water have been provided
Iraq and the coalition. Syr- over the past week, the co- to the convoy but did not
ian opposition activists said alition has struck approxi- say how or by whom. It
Saturday that dozens of IS mately 85 IS fighters and added that the coalition
fighters and their families about 40 IS vehicles in the and the Iraqi government
have crossed into areas vicinity of the convoy. They are not part of the evacu-
controlled by the extremists include a tank, an artillery ation deal “to allow these
using civilian vehicles de- system, armed technical experienced fighters to
spite U.S. threats to bomb vehicles, and transport ve- transit territory under the
the convoy. hicles seeking to facilitate Syrian regime control to the
More than 300 militants and the movement of IS fighters Iraqi border.”
their families were in the to the Iraq border. The coalition said it will con-
convoy after vacating the Hezbollah said in a state- tinue to monitor the con-
border area a week ago. ment Saturday that coali- voy but not allow it to link
Hezbollah and the Syrian tion warplanes are still pre- up with IS fighters in eastern
government allowed them venting the convoy from Syria and western Iraq. It
passage across govern- moving east and barring said the coalition will con-
ment-held territory in return anyone on the government tinue take action against IS
for revealing the location side from reaching them. It without harming civilians.q
of the remains of Lebanese warned that wounded and