SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – It has been ten years since the end of an era, the destruction of the Saddam Hussein statue at the center of Baghdad and, according to many critics, the beginning of the US effort to cover up its quest for oil. Exactly three weeks into the US invasion of Iraq and the great dictator, who Washington claimed possessed weapons of mass destruction, had been erased from history to be found barricaded in a hole…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Israel has released Palestinian prisoner Ibrahim Baroud after 27 years behind bars. Baroud a prominent figure in the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine surprised the families of prisoners who were holding their weekly sit-in in front of the Red Cross Office by showing up there before going to his house. Prisoner’s advocacy groups demanded that all Palestinian prisoners should be set free. Baroud received a hero’s welcome in the Jabalia refugee camp where he was…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) A car bomb Monday afternoon ripped through an area near one of the largest public squares in Damascus, Syria, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, Syrian state TV reported. Gruesome video on state TV showed mangled bodies near Sabaa Bahrat Square, blood and rubble in the streets, significant damage to cars and buildings, and thick smoke. State TV reported that the blast was near a school. The square is surrounded by…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The Syrian government has called on the armed foreign-sponsored insurgents to lay down their weapons or face the consequences. According to Xinhua news agency, the government made the demand on Sunday in a in a text message sent to people across the Arab country. It said that "to all those carrying weapons against the state, be rational and quick to lay down weapons because the men of the Syrian army are coming." The message…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Palestinians have burned an effigy of the Qatari emir in the West Bank to protest against Doha’s foreign policy in the region. A group of Palestinian students hanged and burned an effigy of the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in a university in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on April 1. Reports say the students had links with Fatah party. This comes as Palestinians say Qatar keeps favoring Israel over Palestinians.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) updated -- Afghan officials say at least 11 children have been killed in an air strike carried out by the US-led forces in the country’s eastern province of Kunar, Press TV reports. Kunar provincial officials said on Sunday that at least two Afghan women were also killed in the air raid which took place in the town of Shigal in the Kunar Province where American forces are stationed.  Local officials say a U-S military advisor has also…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - Up to 12 civilians - 10 children and two women - are reported to have been killed in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan. A further six women are believed to have been injured in the incident in Shigal district, Kunar province. Villagers and officials told the BBC that the casualties were inside their homes when they died. Nato confirmed that "fire support" was used in Shigal but said it did not have…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - A coordinated attack involving a suicide bombing on a open-air election campaign meeting north of Baghdad killed at least 22 people, officials said, two weeks before provincial polls. A man on Saturday had thrown a grenade on the meeting in the restive city of Baquba, 60 km from the Iraqi capital, before a suicide bomber blew himself up, a police colonel and a medic at the city hospital said. At least 60 people were…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Hundreds of Egyptians have taken to the streets to protest against President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political wing controls the post-revolution's first elected government. Protesters battled police in several Egyptian cities on Saturday, with at least eight people reported injured, after rallies to mark the anniversary of a key opposition movement turned violent. In the capital, Cairo, police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters outside the Superior Court, which also houses…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A Shia School teacher Syed Aijaz Hussain has been killed by Deobandi militants of Sipah-e-Sahaba on Saturday, April 06, 2013. Martyr Syed Aijaz Hussain was targeted at Haji Mora Obhayal Pul by the armed terrorists. About 6 members of martyr’s family have also been killed in past on account of Shia Genocide. Shia community of Dera Ismail Khan has been facing huge threats by pro-Taliban terrorists but government and law enforcement agencies have failed to…