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Saudi Arabia behind Iraq’s Hillah terrorist attack: Scholar

Wednesday, 30 November 2016 2:20 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 30 November 2016 5:49 PM ]

This photo shows the wreckage of a truck following a bombing that targeted Shia pilgrims returning from the Arba’een commemoration in Karbala, on November 24, 2016, in the Iraqi village of Shomali, about 120 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. (AFP photo)

While the Daesh Takfiri group has claimed responsibility for a Thursday car bomb explosion at a gas station in Shomali village in suburbs of the city of Hillah, located 120 kilometers southeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a question has been raised over who are the real beneficiaries of the terrorist attack, which killed over 100 people mostly Shia pilgrims. The incident occurred at a time when buses packed with Shia pilgrims were returning from the Arba’een mourning rituals in the holy city of Karbala.

Shabbir Hassanally, an activist and Islamic scholar from London, told Press TV’s Top 5 that Saudi Arabia has used its Daesh mercenaries to kill Shia mourners in Iraq.

The terrorist attack in Hillah was similar to “the tragedy in Mina that was orchestrated by the Saudi regime,” where thousands of pilgrims including hundreds of Iranians were killed during the Hajj stampede in 2015, Hassanally said on Wednesday.

He added, “Of course, it’s well known that the Saudis are among the chief sponsors of Daesh,” so it is not surprising that “the Saudis had explicitly informed and advised their stooges – Daesh – to target Iranian pilgrims.”

According to the scholar, “it’s not surprising that Daesh is going to be used as a puppet there ... by the people behind the Daesh – the Zionists and the Arab Zionists occupying Arabia – to try to harm people.”

He also criticized the international community for its silence on the tragedy in Hillah, saying, “Their silence further confirms the claim that Daesh is in fact manufactured and controlled by America, by Britain, by France, by all of these terrorist regimes” which are serving the Zionists' interests while keeping silence over their Saudi ally’s support for terrorism.

Hassanally further called on the Iraqi authorities to “continue collaboration with Iran,” warning that “they should be very wary about trusting any American or any American affiliated NGOs,” because they provide terrorists with intelligence to target civilians in Iraq.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive there more than two years ago, and took control of swathes of the Iraqi territory.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 1,792 Iraqis, among them 1,120, lost their lives in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in October.

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