Syria says it has foiled a terrorist attack on a church in a “well-planned ambush” in which two suspects linked to the former Bashar Al Assad regime were arrested.
The Interior Ministry said Ramzi Hamoud and Mundhir Ali planned to attack the Mar Elias Maronite Church in the Tartus region on Syria's coast. It said the two men were “en route to carry out a terrorist operation” when they were held.
The “meticulously planned ambush” was carried out by a Special Tasks Unit of the local security forces in Tartus. They seized an explosive device, a black flag and some papers containing written threats to local residents, the ministry said.
The attack would have involved detonating explosives inside the church, said local security commander Abdul Aal Mohammed Abdul Aal. “We assure our dear people that our eyes will not waver for a moment from monitoring these criminal schemes,” he said.
The two suspects are being held awaiting a court process. The ministry said they were “affiliated with one of the outlawed groups linked to remnants of the former regime”, without giving details. Mr Al Assad was overthrown by a rebel offensive last December that brought former Islamist fighter Ahmad Al Shara to power.
A series of bloody incidents have set back Mr Al Shara's attempts to consolidate control of Syria after years of civil war that devastated Syria's economy. In June, 25 people were killed in a church bombing in Damascus that authorities blamed on ISIS, the worst attack for years in the capital.
A flurry of violence on the coast killed more than 1,000 people in March, mainly from Mr Al Assad's Alawite sect, which has lost influence under the new regime in Damascus.
In recent weeks the southern area of Sweida has witnessed brutal fighting involving the Druze minority, Bedouin tribesmen and government forces, leaving hundreds of people dead.
The National revealed last month how Syria's new authorities have stepped up a manhunt for Assad regime loyalists. Thousands of people believed to be wanted for war atrocities remain at large, although the government has not made a list public.
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Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Thursday (All UAE kick-off times)
Sevilla v Real Betis (midnight)
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
'Manmarziyaan' (Colour Yellow Productions, Phantom Films)
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs: 2019 GMC Yukon Denali
Price, base: Dh306,500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 621Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.9L / 100km
More on Quran memorisation:
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