Blast in Syria coastal city kills three: state media
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
5 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Syrian official: Coordination with Saudi Arabia was instrumental in foiling smuggling of huge cache of narcotics
Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Within the framework of Saudi-Syrian intelligence and security cooperation, the Syrian Anti-Narcotics Department is coordinating closely with the Saudi authorities to curb drug smuggling, according to Anwar Abdul-Hay, an official in the Syrian Anti-Narcotics Department, said that the Saudi-Syrian coordination has been instrumental in foiling the smuggling of hundreds of thousands of tons of contraband and narcotics. The report noted that the Saudi Ministry of Interior, represented by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control, provided its counterpart agency in Syria with security information related to the activities of criminal networks involved in drug smuggling. This information led to the Syrian Ministry of Interior's thwarting of an attempt to smuggle more than 200,000 amphetamine pills recently. Anwar Abdul-Hay emphasized the need for coordination with Saudi Arabia. "We are coordinating as if we were part of one security agency," he said while highlighting the existing high level of communication with Riyadh. Abdul-Hay also pointed out the exchange of expertise with Saudi Arabia in the field of drug control, emphasizing that his country coordinates with all neighboring countries to exchange information. He also explained that smuggling networks in Syria had been operating under the patronage of the former regime. Saudi Arabia and Syria are making ongoing efforts to crack down on drug dealers and traffickers. These efforts have resulted in foiling attempts to smuggle hundreds of thousands of narcotics over the past months. With the aim of developing the security system in Syria, the Saudi Ministry of Interior hosted a security delegation from Syria last April to learn about the experience of Saudi security agencies and benefit from their advanced expertise in security fields. Saudi Minister of Interior Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif also met his Syrian counterpart Anas Khattab in Jeddah on June 2 to discuss prospects for cooperation in security fields, including combating terrorism, organized crime, and border guards. They discussed ways to strengthen bilateral security cooperation as well as enhancing coordination in combating drugs, and exchanging information and expertise.
Saudi Gazette
27-06-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Syrian charged over plot to attack Taylor Swift Vienna concert
VIENNA — A young Syrian national has been charged with supporting a foreign terror group over a foiled plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last August. Mohamed A, who is described by German authorities as a juvenile and not in custody, is accused of following the ideology of jihadist group Islamic State (IS) and helping another suspect to prepare the attack. Concert organisers called off Taylor Swift's three sold-out gigs on the eve of the first show at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium last year, disappointing tens of thousands of fans during her Eras Tour. Authorities arrested several suspects at the time saying they appeared to have been inspired by IS and al-Qaeda. "Mohammad A has adhered since April 2024 at the latest to the ideology of the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS)," Germany's federal public prosecutor said in a statement. "Between mid-July and August 2024, he was in contact with a young adult from Austria who was planning a bomb attack on a concert by singer Taylor Swift in Vienna." Sixty-five thousand fans had bought tickets for Swift's three concerts on 8-10 August, and the singer later apologised for the cancellation, speaking of the "tremendous amount of guilt" she felt. She said she had decided to throw all her energy into the shows at the end of her European tour in London. The main suspect in the case has been identified as Beran A, who authorities say was part of an IS cell in eastern Austria. Beran A, who is now 20 and from Ternitz south of Vienna, was arrested before the concerts following a tip-off by the CIA, which said the plotters had hoped to kill a large number of concert-goers. Investigators allege he had also planned to carry out an earlier attack in Dubai in March 2024. Reports suggested it was part of a co-ordinated plot involving three simultaneous IS attacks but Beran A had changed his mind at the last minute. According to the federal prosecutor in Germany, Mohammad A had helped the main suspect with a translation of bomb-making instructions from Arabic as well as making contact with a member of IS abroad over the internet. He is also accused of providing the text for an oath of allegiance to the main suspect to join IS. — BBC
Saudi Gazette
27-06-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Japan executes 'Twitter killer' who murdered nine
TOKYO — Japan has executed a man who murdered nine people in 2017, the first time since 2022 that the country has enacted capital punishment. The serial killings by Takahiro Shiraishi, dubbed the "Twitter killer", had shocked the country and triggered debate over how suicide was discussed online. Shiraishi, then 30, lured his victims - most of them young women between the ages of 15 and 26 - to his apartment, before strangling and dismembering them. The killings came to light in October 2017, when police found body parts in the Japanese city of Zama, near Tokyo, when they were searching for one of the victims. Warning: Readers may find some details in this story distressing. Shiraishi later admitted to murdering nine suicidal victims and revealed that he got acquainted with them on Twitter, the social media platform now known as then told them he could help them die, and in some cases claimed he would kill himself alongside Twitter profile contained the words: "I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM [direct message] me anytime."Nine dismembered bodies were found in coolers and tool boxes when officers visited his flat, which was dubbed by media outlets as a "house of horrors".While prosecutors sought the death penalty for Shiraishi, his lawyers argued for the lesser charge of "murder with consent", claiming his victims had given their permission to be also called for an assessment of his mental later disputed his own defence team's version of events and said he killed without the victims' of people showed up at his verdict hearing in December 2020, when he was sentenced to murders also prompted a change by Twitter, which amended its rules to state users should not "promote or encourage suicide or self-harm".Japan's justice minister Keisuke Suzuki, who said he ordered Shiraishi's execution, said the killer acted "for the genuinely selfish reason of satisfying his own sexual and financial desires", according to an AFP case "caused great shock and anxiety to society", Suzuki said. — BBC
