Page 9 - Aruba Today
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WORLD NEWS 9
Saturday 12 September
Saudi Arabia: 87 dead in crane collapse at Mecca mosque
ABDULLAH AL-SHIHR Authorities did not provide ongoing expansion and
IADAM SCHRECK other construction work
Associated Press details on the victims’ na- that has transformed the
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) area around the sanctuary.
— A towering construction tionalities, but it was likely Steep hills and low-rise tra-
crane collapsed on Friday ditional buildings that once
during a violent rainstorm that the tragedy will touch surrounded the mosque
in Saudi Arabia’s city of have in recent years given
Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, several countries. way to shopping malls and
crashing into the Grand luxury hotels — among
Mosque and killing at least The Grand Mosque and them the world’s third-tall-
87 people ahead of the est building, a giant clock
start of the annual hajj pil- the cube-shaped Kaaba tower that is the center-
grimage later this month. piece of the Abraj al-Bait
Videos and photos post- within it draw Muslims of complex.
ed by social media users The construction giant Sau-
showed a grisly scene, with all types from around the di Binladin Group is leading
police and onlookers at- the mosque expansion and
tending to bloodied bod- world throughout the year, also built the Abraj al-Bait
ies on the polished mosque project.
floors. though numbers increase The Binladin family has
Saudi Arabia’s civil defense been close to the ruling Al
authority provided a series significantly in the run-up to Saud family for decades
of rising casualty numbers and oversees major build-
on its official Twitter ac- the hajj. ing projects around the
count. As of late Friday, it country. The Binladen fami-
said those injured in the di- Performing the pilgrimage ly disowned one of its many
saster numbered 184. members, late al-Qaida
A photo posted online by once during one’s lifetime leader Osama bin Laden,
the authority showed po- in the 1990s.
lice and workers in hard- is a duty for all able-bodied It was not immediately clear
hats inspecting a pile of who owned the crane that
collapsed concrete slabs adult Muslims. collapsed or whether it was
inside a part of the sprawl- involved in the expansion
ing, ornately decorated Pan-satellite Al-Jazeera of the mosque or another
mosque. project nearby. q
Television broadcast
footage from inside the
mosque compound said to
be from the aftermath of
the accident, showing the
floor strewn with rubble and
what appear to be pools of
blood.
Another video, on a Twit-
ter posting, captured the
apparent moment of the A collapsed crane is seen over the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
Friday, Sept. 11, 2015. The accident happened as pilgrims from
crane’s collapse during around the world converged on the city, Islam’s holiest site, for
the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which takes place this month, killing
a heavy rainstorm, with a dozens. The civil defense authority announced the collapse and
a series of rising casualty numbers on its official Twitter account.
loud boom, screams and
(Saudi IMGD of Civil Defense via AP)
confusion.
Other Saudi officials
could not immediately be to the civil defense state- Several cranes surround
reached or referred queries ments. the mosque to support an
Saudi-led airstrikes and rebel shelling kills 35 in Yemen
AHMED AL-HAJ In the stricken area, many sions,” Badawy said. fighters loyal to exiled Presi- vincial capital, also called
Associated Press residents had fled their Another Sanaa resident, dent Abed Rabbo Mansour Marib, killing 25 civilians
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — homes for safer neighbor- Hoda Saleh, said she, her Hadi, as well as southern and wounding others, tribal
Two days of airstrikes by a hoods, away from rebel husband, and their children separatists, local militias and independent security
Saudi-led coalition target- posts, while others have left left their home in al-Nahda and Sunni extremists. officials said.
ing Yemen’s Shiite rebels the rebel-held Sanaa en- neighborhood. They are The Houthis took over Sa- Pro-government forces
killed seven civilians in the tirely, according to those now staying at a hotel in naa last September, tak- control most of the city and
country’s capital, Sanaa, who stayed behind. another area of the Yeme- ing control of government large areas of the province.
independent security and “We’ve lived a night full of ni capital. buildings there. As the reb- The Houthi-run Saba news
health officials said Friday. fear,” said Ammar Badawy, Al-Nahda has seen intense els advanced around the agency said the Katyushas
The strikes targeted camps a resident of western Sonay- airstrikes over the past few country, a Saudi-led coali- targeted and killed al-Qai-
and weapons depots used na neighborhood where days targeting Houthi lead- tion launched an airstrikes da and other fighters there.
by the rebels, known as the Saudi-led airstrikes hit ers’ homes, weapons de- campaign against them in The pro-government forces
Houthis, which are located an air force academy, also pots, and camps. March. say they are looking to take
near residential areas in the controlled by the Houthis. Yemen has been torn by all of Marib, before push-
city, the officials said. The “The windows and doors a ferocious war pitting the In the key central Marib ing onto the adjoining Jawf
death toll included those in my house came off and Houthis and forces fight- province, the Houthis on Fri- province, which connects
killed on Friday and Thurs- were destroyed from the ing for former President Ali day fired several Katyusha Marib to Saada province
day, they said. sheer power of the explo- Abdullah Saleh against missiles into a residential — the Houthi heartland. q
neighborhood in the pro-
