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WORLD NEWS Saturday 7 March 2020

A firefighter disinfects a traditional shopping center to help pre-
vent the spread of the new coronavirus in northern Tehran, Iran,
Friday, March, 6, 2020.
Associated Press
Iran warns it could

Associated Press use 'force' to halt
Forensic officers work on a blast site near the US Embassy in Tunis, Friday, March 6, 2020.

Tunisia: Suicide bombers near U.S. travel amid virus

Embassy kill, injure police By NASSER KARIMI in the United Arab Emirates

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian meanwhile limited prayers
By MEHDI EL AREM and swarmed around the em- there's always going to be authorities warned Friday to two verses of the Quran
BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA bassy on the outskirts of a threat wherever you are they may use "force" to so they lasted no longer
Associated Press Tunis, the Tunisian capital, globally." limit travel between cities than 10 minutes, over con-
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Two after the bombings. Sharp- This North African nation's and announced the new cerns about the virus.
suicide bombers blew shooters could be seen on transition to democracy coronavirus has killed 124 More than 4,990 cases of
themselves up near the U.S. the roofs of nearby build- has been marred by Islamist people amid 4,747 con- the virus, which causes
Embassy in Tunisia on Fri- ings and major streets were extremist attacks. Dozens firmed cases in the Islamic the illness COVID-19, have
day, killing one police offi- blocked. Security units of people were killed in Republic. been confirmed across the
cer and wounding four oth- were placed on maximum two attacks in 2015, at the Health Ministry spokesman Middle East. Iran and Italy
ers, the Interior Ministry said. alert, the Interior Ministry noted Bardo Museum out- Kianoush Jahanpour of- have the world's highest
Lawmaker Yosri Dali, head said. side Tunis, and at a luxury fered the figures at a tele- death tolls outside of Chi-
of the armed forces and A ministry spokesman, beach hotel near Sousse, vised news conference. He na.
security commission, con- Khaled Lahyouni, said one in the east. did not elaborate on the In Qom, the Shiite holy city
firmed eyewitness reports of the five officers injured in Since the fall of Tunisia's threat to use force, though particularly hard-hit by the
that the bombers were on the blast had died after sur- hard-line secular dictator- he acknowledged the virus virus, physician Javad Kho-
a motorcycle. gery. A civilian was slightly ship in January 2011, ex- now was in all of Iran's 31 dadadi was confirmed with
Dali said in an interview injured. tremists have increasingly provinces. the virus, the official IRNA
with Radio Mosaique that The spokesman insisted the come into the open. Some The threat may be to stop news agency reported Fri-
they blew themselves dead attackers had tar- prisoners serving time for people from using closed day. Khodadadi is head of
up when a police patrol geted the officers on patrol extremist-linked convic- schools and universities a hospital in the city and
stopped them to ask where and not the U.S. Embassy. tions have walked free. as an excuse to go to the had been treating patients
they were going. An angry crowd of hun- A flag inside the walled-off Caspian Sea and other Ira- infected with the virus. He is
Sofiane Selliti, spokesman dreds of people stormed American diplomatic mis- nian vacation spots. Semi- the 14th local medical staff
for the judiciary's counter- the embassy compound in sion fluttered above the official news agencies in member to become infect-
terrorism office said the 2012. attack site outside the em- Iran posted images of long ed with the virus.
attackers' motorcycle was The U.S. State Department bassy's compound. Police traffic lines as people tried In Tehran, firefighters
"packed with explosives." said it was "outraged" by taped off the area, which to reach the Caspian coast sprayed disinfectant on
He described on Radio the attack and saddened was littered with charred from Tehran on Friday, de- an 18-kilometer (11-mile)
Mosaique a horrific scene, by the fatality. It said one debris, and forensic teams spite authorities earlier tell- length of Tehran's famous
saying the attackers' body of the U.S. Embassy's local sorted through remnants of ing people to remain in Valiasr Avenue, some from
parts fragments were flung employees was injured, the explosion. their cities. firetrucks and others walk-
a considerable distance. but it didn't elaborate. The The U.S. Embassy, located Iran on Thursday an- ing along its sidewalks,
Hundreds of police State Department said it is in a residential area on the nounced it would put spraying ATMs and store-
working with local authori- outskirts of Tunis, came un- checkpoints in place to fronts.
ties on the investigation. der assault in 2012 along limit travel between major "It would be great if they did
There was no immediate with a nearby American cities, hoping to stem the it every day," grocery store
claim of responsibility for school by crowds angered spread of the virus. owner Reza Razaienejad
the attack. Authorities did by an anti-Muslim film pro- Iran canceled Friday said after the firefighters
not confirm media reports duced in the United States. prayers across its major sprayed outside his shop.
naming the attackers. Security forces killed four cities. Elsewhere in the re- "It should not be just a one-
The U.S. Assistant Secretary people during the attack gion, Iraq canceled Friday time thing and should be
of State for Political-Military in which the American prayers in Karbala, where a done frequently, especially
Affairs, Clarke Cooper, said flag was torn down and weekly sermon is delivered in places like here where
combating terrorism is "a replaced with an Islamic on behalf of the country's movement and traffic hap-
long-term proposition … flag.q top Shiite cleric. Authorities pens a lot."q