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| Arabia | |
| Iran Rises Death Toll from Hajj Stampede to 464 | |
| 2015-10-02 | |
| [ALMANAR.LB] Iran on Thursday nearly doubled its corpse count from last week's hajj stampede, saying there was no hope of finding pilgrims missing after the tragedy. "Seven days after this tragic accident... the status of all (pilgrims) injured has been completely cleared and reported," Iran's Hajj organization said in a statement carried by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? Around 240 Iranians were previously declared dead after last Thursday's crush near Mecca, with more than 200 classified as missing. An Iranian red crescent official said on Thursday that those missing were all likely to have died. "We are completely disappointed from finding unknown and missing Iranians," said Ali Marashi, the head of hajj red crescent medical centre, state media reported. Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Iranian Health Minister Hassan Hashemi as saying that he and his Saudi counterpart Khaled al-Falih had struck a deal aimed at "speeding up the process, as the victims' families are waiting" back at home. "Iran would be the first country to receive bodies and repatriate them," Hashemi said. Those unidentified bodies who are clearly Iranian would be repatriated first and identified at home, he added.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... The kingdom gave a toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured in the tragedy during a pilgrimage stoning ritual at Mina near the holy city of Mecca. Riyadh has not given any figures for the number of missing or said whether any Saudis were killed. A tally of corpse counts from 23 countries, mostly from official sources, put the number killed at more than 990. More than 600 are reported as missing. The reason for the discrepancy was unclear and the Saudi health ministry could not immediately respond to a request for comment. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Hundreds of people were still unaccounted for Thursday Probably all in Germany by now. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2015-10-02 13:13 |