More than 2,000 killed in Syria since start of Ramadan, NGO says.

More than 2,000 killed in Syria since start of Ramadan, NGO says.

Free Syrian Army fighters pray along a street in Aleppo's
 Salaheddine neighborhood on July 9, 2013. (Reuters)

Al Arabia | 26 Jul 2013 :: At least 2,014 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on July 10, a watchdog said on Thursday.

More than 1,323 of the dead were pro- and anti-regime fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that the overall “toll has been particularly high in the past four days,” adding that both camps “concealed the real number of dead so the real toll is actually higher.”

The Britain-based Observatory said that 438 army soldiers were killed in Ramadan, and 69 members of the government’s paramilitary National Defense Force were killed.

Meanwhile, 545 civilians who joined the rebels were killed in the Muslim holy month. Thirty of them were soldiers who had defected from the Syrian army, and 241 were foreign and unidentified fighters.

The death toll also included 639 civilians, including 105 children and 99 women, most of whom were killed in army shelling, said the Observatory.

An additional 52 unidentified corpses were accounted for in the Observatory's toll.

According to the Observatory, more than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict so far, which began after President Bashar al-Assad’s regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against a March 2011 popular revolt calling for change.

The United Nations estimates that some 5,000 people a month are dying in Syria's civil war.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

Pakistani clerics ban women from shopping alone in northwest area.

Pakistani clerics ban women from shopping alone in northwest area.

 Pakistan | DERA ISMAIL KHAN | Reuters | 21 Jul 2013 ::  Clerics in northwest Pakistan have issued a temporary ban on women shopping unless accompanied by a male relative, a police official said on Saturday, in a step designed to keep men from being distracted during the holy month of Ramadan.

Police are supporting the ban, announced over mosque loudspeakers on Friday in Karak district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, district police official Fazal Hanif told Reuters.

Unaccompanied women will be arrested and shopkeepers may be punished for selling items to women on their own.

One trader said he feared the ban would affect business and damage the region's reputation.

"We never supported this ban and convened a meeting on Wednesday to protest over the clerics' decision," Munwar Khan, one of the merchants in the region, told Reuters.

Vast swathes of rural Pakistan, whose name means "Land of the Pure", are deeply conservative. Thousands of women have been killed in recent years for behaviour their families considered improper.

The mosque announcements said the ban was intended to stop men from being distracted during Ramadan, when Muslims are meant to fast from dawn to sunset. The annual period of fasting and prayer falls in July this year.

The ban was proposed by a faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party led by Fazl-ur-Rehman, local administration official Sarfaraz Khattak said.

Such religious parties have typically performed poorly in Pakistani elections, winning only a handful of seats. But mainstream politicians are often slow to criticise religious leaders, partly for fear of being targeted by their supporters.

Some residents of the area also oppose the ban.

"The male members of the family don't have enough time to take women to the market," said Mohammad Naeem Khattak. "Where can women go for shopping if they are banned in the market?" (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) (Courtesy:Reuters)

Bombing in Iraq kills at least 17.

Suicide attacks, car bombings and other violence
 have killed nearly 200 people since the faithful began
 daytime fasting to mark the Islamic holy month, which
 started earlier in July. — File Photo by Reuters

BAGHDAD | AP |19 Jul 2013 ::  A bomb exploded inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq during midday prayers Friday, killing at least 17 people in the latest outburst of deadly violence targeting worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan.

Suicide attacks, car bombings and other violence have killed nearly 200 people since the faithful began daytime fasting to mark the Islamic holy month, which started earlier in July.

The violence is an extension of a surge that has ripped through Iraq for months, reviving fears of a return to the widespread sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Diyala provincial councilman Sadiq al-Husseini said Friday's explosion hit the Abu Bakir al-Sideeq mosque in the town of Wijaihiya, which is about 80 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. He said it killed at least 17.

Diyala province, where the attack occurred, was once the site of some of the fiercest fighting between US forces and insurgents in Iraq.

It remains a hotbed for terrorist attacks.

The area is religiously mixed and witnessed some of the worst atrocities as Shia militias battled Sunni insurgents for control in the years after the invasion.

''Terrorism is targeting all sects in Diyala mainly by attacking Sunni and Shia mosques, funerals and football fields to draw the province into a sectarian conflict. All the victims were civilians,'' al-Husseini said, appealing for calm. ''I call on all Diyala residents to show self-restraint.''

Police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to release the information to media, confirmed the death toll. They also reported that more than 50 were wounded in the explosion, and warned that the number of dead could rise.

The attack struck while Iran's outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrapped up a two-day trip to Iraq with visits to Shia Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Karbala south of Baghdad.

There was no indication the mosque blast was related to his trips.

Violence across Iraq has risen sharply since a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawija on April 23.

That raid followed months of rallies by Iraq's minority Sunnis against the Shia-led government over what they contend is second-class treatment and the unfair use of tough anti-terrorism measures against their sect.

The surge in bloodshed has left more than 2,800 people dead and many more wounded since the start of April.

Attacks on Sunni mosques, for years a relatively rare target in Iraq, have picked up significantly in recent months.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Friday's bombing or many of the other recent attacks.

Sunni extremists such as Al Qaeda's Iraq arm that seek to undermine the Shia-led government are frequently blamed for bombing attacks targeting civilians.

They could be behind the Sunni mosque bombings too, hoping to incite a sectarian backlash against Shias.

So could Shia militias that have been remobilising following years of relative quiet.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Ramadan bombings kill at least 38 in Iraq.

Security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in Basra, Iraq.

BAGHDAD  | 15 Jul 2013 ::  A wave of explosions tore through overwhelmingly Shiite cities south of Baghdad shortly before the Muslim faithful broke their Ramadan fasts on Sunday, killing at least 38 people, authorities said.

The bombings were part of a surge of violence that is raising fears that Iraq is sliding back toward full-scale sectarian fighting. 

The coordinated attacks followed shootings and bombings in the north earlier in the day that killed six others. 

Insurgents have been pounding Iraq with bombings and other attacks for months in the country's worst eruption of violence in half a decade. The pace of the killing has picked up since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Wednesday, with daily attacks marring what is meant to be a month of charity and peaceful reflection.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the recent wave of attacks, but Sunni extremists, including Al Qaida's Iraq branch, are believed to be responsible for much of the killing. They frequently target Shiites, security forces and civil servants in an effort to undermine the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Violence in Iraq has risen to its deadliest level since 2008, with more than 2,700 people killed since the start of April. The spike in bloodshed is fueling fears that Iraq is again heading toward the widespread sectarian killing that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the country teetered on the brink ofcivil war. 

Insurgents often increased attacks during Ramadan in the years following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Pious Muslims go without food, drink, smoking and sex in the daytime during the holy month, when feelings of spiritual devotion are high. 

Sunday's explosions struck shortly before the evening iftar meal that ends the daylong fast during Ramadan. 

At least eight people were killed and 15 were wounded in the southern port city of Basra when a car bomb and then a follow-up blast went off near an office of a Shiite political party, according to two police officers. Basra is a major oil industry hub 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. 

Another car bomb exploded among shops and take-out restaurants in central Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. The provincial deputy governor, Haidar Mohammed Jassim, said five people were killed and 35 wounded. 

Police reported additional car bomb explosions that left four dead in a commercial street in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, five near an outdoor market in Nasiriyah and six near a Shiite mosque in Musayyib, and more than 60 wounded in total.(Courtesy: Los Angeles Time)