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A man yelling “free Palestine” used incendiary devices to torch protesters rallying in support of Israeli hostages, injuring at least eight people in the US state of Colorado on Sunday.The FBI said it was investigating the incident as a “targeted terror attack” and identified the suspect as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman. He was booked into the county jail just before midnight on multiple felony charges, according to county records. His bond has been set at $10 million.Police in the city of Boulder said it was too early to determine a motive for the attack, which took place shortly before 1:30 pm (1930 GMT) at a demonstration outside a mall.The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, said the “violent antisemitic attack” occurred at Sunday’s “Run for Their Lives” event, a weekly gathering of the Jewish community in solidarity with hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.FBI agent Mark Michalek told reporters the attack happened at a “regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event.””Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,” he said, adding that “the suspect was heard to yell: ‘Free Palestine!'”Boulder Police said that eight victims, four men and four women aged between 52 and 88, were transported to hospitals.Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that “at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition.”The suspect was also injured before being taken into custody, Redfearn said.- Molotov cocktails -In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.Other images showed billowing black smoke.Boulder resident Alexis Cendon said he felt “very, very scared” after hearing about the attack near his workplace.Sunday’s attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted “Free Palestine,” was arrested.Boulder Police Chief Redfearn insisted it was “way too early to speculate motive,” but FBI chief Kash Patel described the attack as “a targeted terror attack.”Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser labeled it “a hate crime.””People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences,” Weiser said.White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on X that the suspect was a foreign national who “illegally overstayed (his) visa.”Fox News and CBS both cited US officials as saying Soliman was an Egyptian national.  The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.- ‘Burning the streets’ -Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar condemned Sunday’s “terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder.”Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also voiced outrage.”Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,” he said in a statement.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also described the Boulder incident as a “targeted terror attack,” while Attorney General Pam Bondi termed it “a horrific anti-Semitic attack.”Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle expressed revulsion.”Tonight, a peaceful demonstration was targeted in a vile, antisemitic act of terror,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror.”Several organizations also decried the violence.”This is an attack on all of us — and we will not stay silent,” the Israeli-American Council said in a statement.

The annual hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, will start on Wednesday with well over one million Muslims from around the world expected to take part.All Muslims are expected to complete the hajj to Mecca — from which non-Muslims are strictly banned — at least once in their lives if they have the means to do so.Believers converge on the holy city for several days of rituals in which they retrace the Prophet Mohammed’s last pilgrimage.Here is a rundown of the ceremonies at what is usually one of the largest religious gatherings in the world:- White garments -Pilgrims must first enter a state of purity, called ihram, which requires special dress and behaviour.Men wear a seamless shroud-like white garment that emphasises unity among believers regardless of their social status or nationality.Women must wear loose dresses, also white, exposing only their faces and hands.Pilgrims are not allowed to argue, bicker or engage in sexual activity and are prohibited from wearing perfume, cutting their nails, or trimming their hair or beards.- Rituals begin -The first ritual requires walking seven times around the Kaaba, the large black cubic structure at the centre of Mecca’s Grand Mosque.Made from granite and draped in a heavily embroidered cloth featuring verses of the Koran, the Kaaba stands nearly 15 metres (50 feet) tall.Muslims, no matter where they are in the world, turn towards the Kaaba to pray. The structure is believed to have been first erected by Adam, the first man, and then rebuilt successively, including by Abraham around 4,000 years ago.Pilgrims next walk seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwa.They then move on to Mina, around five kilometres (three miles) away, ahead of the main rite of the pilgrimage at Mount Arafat.- Mount Arafat -The climax of the hajj is the gathering on Mount Arafat, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Mina, where it is believed the Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon.Pilgrims assemble on the 70-metre (230-foot) high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayers and Koran recitals, staying there until the evening.After sunset they head to Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they each gather dozens of pebbles so they can perform the symbolic “stoning of the devil”.- ‘Stoning of the devil’ -The last major ritual of the hajj is back at Mina, where pilgrims throw seven stones at each of three concrete walls representing Satan.The ritual is an emulation of Abraham’s stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade him from obeying God’s order to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.After the first stoning, the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice begins.Sheep are slaughtered, in reference to the lamb that God provided for sacrifice instead of Ishmael, in a ceremony held at the same time around the world.Men then shave their heads or trim their hair while women cut a fingertip-length portion of their locks.The pilgrims can then change back into normal clothing, returning to circumambulate the Kaaba and complete their stone-throwing rituals before heading home.- Four other pillars -The hajj is the last pillar of Islam. The other four are: profession of the faith, daily prayers, alms-giving and fasting from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan.

It is Islam’s holiest pilgrimage, but the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which begins on Wednesday, has in recent decades been plagued by deadly disasters, from stampedes to militant attacks.Last year, 1,301 pilgrims, most of them unregistered and lacking access to air-conditioned tents and buses, died as temperatures soared to 51.8 degrees Celsius.Here are some incidents that have marred the centuries-old pilgrimage:- Stampedes -The worst hajj disaster ever took place in 2015, when a stampede during the stoning of the devil ritual in Mina, near Mecca, killed up to 2,300 worshippers.Some pilgrims blamed the stampede on the closure of a road near the stoning site, accusing security forces of mismanaging the flow of worshippers.Two weeks before, more than 100 people were killed and hundreds injured when stormy weather toppled a crane onto Mecca’s Grand Mosque.Some 364 pilgrims died in a 2006 stampede, which came a week after a hotel collapse in the city centre killed 76 people.Two years earlier, 251 people died in a stampede, and in 1998 more than 100 people were killed.Authorities cited “record numbers” of pilgrims as the cause of a 1994 stampede that killed 270 people.In 1990, 1,426 mostly Asian pilgrims perished, trampled underfoot and asphyxiated in a tunnel at Mina after a ventilation system failed.According to the authorities, panic set in inside an already hugely overcrowded tunnel when seven pilgrims fell from a bridge.Witnesses said a power outage paralysed the tunnel’s two powerful ventilators.- Attacks -In 1989 a twin attack outside of the Grand Mosque on July 10 killed one person and wounded 16. Weeks later, 16 Kuwaiti Shiites were found guilty and executed.A decade earlier, hundreds of gunmen calling for the abdication of the Saudi royal family barricaded themselves inside Mecca’s Grand Mosque on November 20, 1979, taking dozens of pilgrims hostage.The official toll of the assault and subsequent fighting, which took place after the hajj was over, was 153 people dead and 560 wounded.- Protests -Saudi security forces in 1987 suppressed an unauthorised protest by Iranian pilgrims on July 31 in which more than 400 people including 275 Iranians were killed, according to an official toll.- Infernos -A fire on April 15, 1997 caused by a gas stove ripped through a camp housing pilgrims in Mina, killing 343 people and injuring around 1,500.In 1975, a huge fire on December 14 started by an exploding gas canister in a pilgrim camp close to Mecca killed 200 people.

More than a million Muslim pilgrims poured into the holy city of Mecca ahead of the annual hajj, with authorities vowing to hold a safer pilgrimage amid searing desert heat and a massive crackdown on illegal visitors.Officials have beefed up heat mitigation measures hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s hajj, which saw 1,301 pilgrims die as temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit).Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius this week as one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings starts on Wednesday.The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.As of Friday, more than 1.3 million pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia for the multi-day pilgrimage, according to officials.This year, authorities have mobilised more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials, doubling their efforts against heat-related illness following the lethal heatwave of 2024.Shaded areas have been expanded by 50,000 square metres (12 acres), thousands more medics will be on standby, and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed, Saudi Arabia’s hajj minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah told AFP last week.On Monday, with temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius, the health ministry said 44 cases of heatstroke had already been treated.The latest artificial intelligence technology will also help monitor the flood of data and footage, including video from a new fleet of drones, from across Mecca to better manage the mammoth crowds.Despite the punishing heat, pilgrims were overjoyed as they arrived in Mecca.- ‘Very, very, very hot’ -“This is really a blessing from Allah,” Abdul Majid Ati, a Filipino lawyer and Sharia counsellor, told AFP near the Grand Mosque.”We feel so peaceful and safe in this place.”Abdulhamid, from Nigeria, said he was “very happy” to be performing his second pilgrimage in a row at just 27 years old.But the young man said he never walks out without his sunglasses, describing the temperatures in Mecca as “very, very, very hot”.The rites in the holy city and its surroundings, which follow a lunar calendar, fall again this year during the hot month of June.Last year, most of the deaths were among unregistered pilgrims who lacked access to air-conditioned tents and buses.”They were caught by surprise because the intensity of the heat was so high that their adaptation measures failed,” said Fahad Saeed of Climate Analytics, a think tank based in Germany.In the run-up to this year’s hajj, Saudi authorities launched a widespread crackdown on unregistered worshippers, using frequent raids, drone surveillance and a barrage of text alerts.- Arrest and deportation -Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals by lottery.But even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs prompt many to attempt the hajj without a permit — though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.Along with hefty fines, those found illegally entering Mecca during the hajj face a potential 10-year ban from Saudi Arabia.Large crowds at the hajj have proved hazardous in the past, most recently in 2015 when a stampede during the “stoning the devil” ritual in Mina, near Mecca, killed up to 2,300 people in the deadliest hajj disaster.Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam’s holiest sanctuaries in Mecca and Medina, earns billions of dollars each year from the hajj and pilgrimages known as umrah, undertaken at other times of the year.The pilgrimages are a also source of prestige for the Saudi monarch, who is known as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina.For Mariama, a 52-year-old pilgrim from Senegal, the journey to Mecca has fulfilled a life-long dream.”I was dreaming about it, thinking about it every time to come here to do the hajj,” she said.

A man yelling “Free Palestine” used a makeshift flamethrower to torch protesters rallying in support of Israeli hostages, injuring at least eight people in the US state of Colorado on Sunday.The FBI said it was investigating the incident as a “targeted terror attack” and identified the suspect as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman.Investigators said the man had been taken into custody, but provided no further details about him. Police in the city of Boulder were cautious in presuming a motive.The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, said the “violent antisemitic attack” occurred at Sunday’s “Run for Their Lives” event, a weekly gathering of the Jewish community in solidarity with hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.”This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event,” FBI agent Mark Michalek told reporters.”Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,” he said, adding that “the suspect was heard to yell: “Free Palestine!”Boulder Police said eight victims, four men and four women aged between 52 and 88, were transported to hospitals.Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that “at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition.”The suspect was also injured before being taken into custody, Redfearn said.- Molotov cocktails -In one video apparently of the attack, a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.Other images showed billowing black smoke.Boulder resident Alexis Cendon said he felt “very, very scared” after hearing about the attack near his workplace.”We are in a country in the first world, so these things (are) not supposed to happen,” he told AFP.Sunday’s attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect who shouted “Free Palestine” was arrested.Asked if it was a terror attack against the protesters, Boulder Police Chief Redfearn insisted it was “way too early to speculate motive” behind the violence, which took place shortly before 1:30 pm (1930 GMT).There had initially been reports of a possible second perpetrator, but Redfearn stressed that “at this point, we do not believe that there is an additional suspect at large.”FBI chief Kash Patel described Sunday’s incident as “a targeted terror attack,” while Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser labeled it “a hate crime.””People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences. Hate has no place in Colorado,” Weiser said.White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on X that the suspect was a foreign national who “illegally overstayed (his) visa.”The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.- ‘Antisemitic attack’ -Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar condemned Sunday’s “terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder.”Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also voiced outrage.”Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,” he said in a statement.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the Boulder incident as a “targeted terror attack,” while Attorney General Pam Bondi said “FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado following what appears to be a horrific anti-Semitic attack.”Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle expressed revulsion.”Tonight, a peaceful demonstration was targeted in a vile, antisemitic act of terror,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror.Several organizations also decried the violence.”Our community was targeted in a violent, antisemitic attack,” the Israeli-American Council said in a statement.”This is an attack on all of us — and we will not stay silent.”