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Octopath Traveler II details Throne the Thief, Temenos the Cleric, secondary jobs, and support skills

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Publisher Square Enix [5,072 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/square-enix”>Square Enix and developer Acquire [282 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/gungho-online-entertainment/acquire”>Acquire have released new information and screenshots for Octopath Traveler II [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/octopath-traveler-ii”>Octopath Traveler II introducing the tales of Osvald the Scholar and Partitio the Merchant, and water travel.

Get the details below.

■ Concept

About

This game is a brand-new entry in the Octopath Traveler [22 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/octopath-traveler”>Octopath Traveler series, the first installment of which was initially released in 2018 and sold over three million copies worldwide.

It takes the series’ HD-2D [19 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/series/hd-2d”>HD-2D graphics, a fusion of retro pixel art and 3D CG, to even greater heights. In the world of Solistia, eight new travelers venture forth into an exciting new era.

Where will you go? What will you do? Whose tale will you bring to life? Every path is yours to take. Embark on an Adventure [631 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure all your own.

New World, New Tales [1 article]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/new-tales”>New Tales

The story takes place in Solistia, a land comprising an eastern and western continent divided by the sea.

It is a bustling era, wherein large vessels navigate busy sea routes and the power of steam gives birth to new technologies.

Some people thrill to glamorous stars of the stage and industry, while others are brought to tears by war, plague, and poverty.

In this faraway realm, eight travelers hailing from different regions venture forth for their own reasons. Step into their shoes and explore the land as you see fit.

■ Throne Anguis, the Thief (voiced by Erica Mendez in English, Rie Tanaka in Japanese)

Your name is Throne Anguis, and you are a thief. Your tale begins in a thrilling city in the Brightlands.

You are a member of the Blacksnakes, a thieves guild that controls the city from the shadows. Your job is to steal…and clean.

“Not again… Not this stench. Every time I breathe it in, it feels as though my very lungs are rotting… The stench of blood.”

Determined to escape the cycle of bloodshed, you embark on a journey for the keys to your freedom…

■ Characters in Throne’s Tale

Father (voiced by DC Douglas in English, Kenyu Horiuchi in Japanese)

One of the leaders of the Blacksnakes, and a first-rate assassin who oversees the guild’s jobs. He taught Throné the art of assassination when she was young.

Mother (voiced by Meli Grant in English, Tomie Kataoka in Japanese)

The other leader of the Blacksnakes who values order and discipline above all. She manages the guild’s members and mercilessly punishes those who fail her.

Pirro (voiced by Sean Chiplock in English, Takamasa Mogi in Japanese)

A member of the Blacksnakes. Though somewhat resigned to his life in the guild, he also dreams of rising through the ranks and earning his freedom.

Scaracci (voiced by Eliah Mountjoy in English, Ryohei Arai in Japanese)

A member of the Blacksnakes. He puts on a bold front, but secretly fears being punished by the guild.

■ Throne’s Adventure Begins in the Brightlands

Eastern Solistia is an urban region home to the continent‘s largest city. Blessed by warm sunshine and a pleasant climate, it soon became known as the Brightlands. Agricultural abundance caused the region to flourish, and people flocked here in droves. Wealth soon followed, and development soon after. Before long, buildings like theaters and game parlors were erected to entertain the evergrowing crowds, and now the light of civilization shines as bright here as the sun does overhead. At the center of all of this lies the Brightlands’ beating heart: New Delsta. In the east of these lands can be found Clockbank, an industrial center that has prospered ever since the Age of Discovery.

—The urban Brightlands region.

—New Delsta’s theater.

—The industrial town of Clockbank.

■ Throne’s Path Actions

Steal

Steal townspeople’s belongings (with a given probability). Fail, and your reputation will suffer.

—You won’t be able to use Path Actions if your reputation suffers. Raise Thronée’s level to increase her chances of success.

Ambush

Knock people unconscious. You must be the appropriate level to succeed.

—If Throne’s level is high enough, she can knock someone unconscious. This will allow you to move forward when someone is blocking your path.

■ Throne’s Talent: Blessing of Darkness

Throne can augment all allies at the start of battle at night.

—Blessing of Darkness automatically triggers at the start of battles at night. This raises the physical attack, elemental attack, and speed of all allies, allowing your party to immediately go on the offensive.

■ Throne’s Latent Power: Leave No Tract

When her latent power gauge is full, Throne can act twice in a single turn.

—Throne’s latent power allows her to act twice in a row, giving her an extra edge in battle.

—The choice is yours on how best to use the two Action [820 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/action”>actions. You can go on the offensive, heal, and more.

■ Temenos Mistral, the Cleric (voiced by Jordan Dash Cruz in English, Akira Ishida in Japanese)

Your name is Temenos Mistral, and you are a cleric. Your tale begins in the mountainous region of the Crestlands.

Though easygoing in your duties as Inquisitor, that all changes the day a tragic incident takes place in the church.

“Oh dear… I suppose it can’t be helped. After all, doubt is what I do.”

Sensing that there is much more to the incident than meets the eye, you set out to solve the mystery left in its wake…

■ Characters in Temenos’ Tale

Pontiff Jorg (voiced by Jay Preston in English, Fumitake Ishiguro in Japanese)

The most prominent member of the Order of the Sacred Flame, respected by all the townspeople. He trusts Temenos and has appointed him Inquisitor.

Crick (voiced by Stephen Fu in English, Junya Enoki in Japanese)

A newly anointed Sanctum Knight. He meets Temenos after being tasked with guarding the cathedral, and together they investigate the strange incident within.

■ Temenos’ Adventure Begins in the Crestlands

Northeast Solistia, a land of mountains and hills. Perched high atop one stony peak rises Aelfric Cathedral [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/cathedral”>Cathedral, the center of the Sacred Flame faith. Adherents of this religion’s tenets have worshipped the Sacred Flame that the cathedral houses since time immemorial. Even through the bitterly cold winter a century previous, the flame continued to warm the hearts and souls of all who visited. In both name and spirit, the Sacred Flame and its church are the divine lords of this land. At the base of the cathedral lies the small town of Flamechurch. Though its population is small, the townsfolk make a good living providing for the crowds of pilgrims who travel here to visit the cathedral.

—The mountainous Crestlands.

—Aelfric Cathedral.

—Flamechurch.

■ Temenos’ Path Actions

Guide

Lead a townsperson around. You must be the appropriate level to succeed.

—If Temenos’ level is high enough, he can Guide someone and even summon them to aid him in battle.

Coerce

Force information out of someone by breaking them in battle.

—Lower your foe’s Shield Points to 0 to break them and obtain the information you seek. You won’t need to defeat your target, so focus on exploiting their weak points.

■ Temenos’ Talent: Moonlight Judgment

Temenos can enfeeble all foes at the start of battle at night.

—Moonlight Judgment automatically triggers at the start of battles at night. This blinds foes, which lowers their accuracy and safeguards your party from oncoming attacks. It also decreases foes’ physical and elemental defense, giving you the upper hand.

Temenos’ Latent Power: Judgment

When his latent power gauge is full, Temenos can lower foes’ Shield Points with any attack.

—On the turn Judgment is activated, all of Temenos’ attacks will lower enemy Shield Points. Combine this with boosted attacks or multiple-hit skills and he can break an enemy in a single turn.

■ Secondary Jobs

Each traveler sets out with a primary job, which they can combine with a secondary job in battle as their journey progresses.

Changing your secondary job also changes the weapons and skills at your disposal.

—The more weapons you can use, the easier it will be to break an opponent. This will also drastically increase your power on the battlefield.

—The choice is yours as to whether you develop your travelers’ strengths, compensate for their weaknesses, or something else entirely.

Obtaining Secondary Jobs

You can obtain licenses at various guilds throughout the world for basic jobs like Warrior and Dancer. Fulfill the guilds’ requests and you can obtain up to three licenses, allowing multiple travelers to use the same secondary job.

—Some guilds operate openly in towns, while others are hidden away. Search every corner of the world to find them all.

—Special jobs require a unique item known as “proof” to be used in battle. Only a single traveler can use one of these powerful jobs at a time, so choose wisely.

■ Support Skills

Learn job skills to unlock support skills. Each traveler can equip up to four of these valuable skills that trigger automatically.

—Learn job skills to unlock support skills. Each traveler can equip up to four of these valuable skills that trigger automatically.

—Combine different jobs’ support skills, like Summon Strength and Eagle Eye, to further strengthen your travelers.

—Some support skills can be used outside of battle, like Evasive Maneuvers and Vigorous Victor.

■ Crossed Paths: Throne and Temenos

This installment includes Crossed Paths, which are stories involving two travelers.

Throne and Temenos return to Flamechurch. Throne recalls a rumor she heard of a treasure inside the cathedral and asks Temenos if he would like to do a little investigating…

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World

Iran top legal cleric says morality police shut down

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  • Protesters call for economic boycott from Monday to Wednesday
  • Raisi visits Tehran University on Wednesday for Student Day
  • Interior ministry silent on the morality police’s status

DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Protesters in Iran called on Sunday for a three-day strike this week, stepping up pressure on authorities after the public prosecutor said the morality police whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests had been shut down.

There was no confirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said Public Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was not responsible for overseeing the force.

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not change the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab policy, which requires women to dress modestly and wear headscarves, despite 11 weeks of protests against strict Islamic regulations.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest which erupted in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police for flouting the hijab rules.

Protesters seeking to maintain their challenge to Iran’s clerical rulers have called for a three-day economic strike and a rally to Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square on Wednesday, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters.

President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran on the same day to mark Student Day in Iran.

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country – some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed.

Iran’s Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary’s news agency Mizan.

Residents posting on social media and newspapers such as Shargh daily say there have been fewer sightings of the morality police on the streets in recent weeks as authorities apparently try to avoid provoking more protests.

On Saturday, Montazeri was cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency as saying that the morality police had been disbanded.

“The same authority which has established this police has shut it down,” he was quoted as saying. He said the morality police was not under the judiciary’s authority, which “continues to monitor behavioural actions at the community level.”

Al Alam state television said foreign media were depicting his comments as “a retreat on the part of the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and religious morality as a result of the protests”, but that all that could be understood from his comments was that the morality police were not directly related to the judiciary.

EXECUTIONS

State media said four men convicted of cooperating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad were executed on Sunday.

They had been arrested in June – before the current unrest sweeping the country – following cooperation between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Islamic Republic has long accused arch-enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran.

The prime minister’s office in Israel, which oversees Mossad, declined to comment.

Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that the country’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed out to the four men “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”.

Three other people were handed prison sentences of between five and 10 years after being convicted of crimes that included acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping and possessing illegal weapons, the Mehr news agency said.

Reporting by Dubai Newsroom
Editing by Dominic Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Baghdad, Iraq: Several killed in clashes in Green Zone after Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announces withdrawal from politics

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Several witnesses told CNN the security forces pushed protesters out of Iraq’s Republican Palace by firing tear gas and live bullets. Hundreds of protesters stormed the building inside the Green Zone following al-Sadr’s announcement, Iraqi security officials told CNN on Monday.

The Republican Palace is where the Iraqi cabinet meets, and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has now suspended all meetings of his government until further notice, according to a statement released by his office. The Prime Minister has urged al-Sadr “to help call on the demonstrators to withdraw from government institutions.”

The country’s President Barham Salih also urged calm, saying in a statement on Monday that “the difficult circumstance that our country is going through requires everyone to abide by calm, restraint, prevent escalation, and ensure that the situation does not slip into unknown and dangerous labyrinths in which everyone will lose.”

Al-Sadr said he had made a decision two months ago “not to interfere in political affairs,” but he was now announcing his “final retirement” from politics and shutting down all his political offices across the country, according to a statement released by his office on Monday.

The announcement came after weeks of tensions and protests that were sparked by al-Sadr’s decision in June to order his entire political bloc to withdraw from the Iraqi parliament in an apparent show of force after months of political stalemate.

At that time, he said his request was “a sacrifice from me for the country and the people to rid them of the unknown destiny.”

Iraq has struggled to form a new government since parliamentary elections in October which saw Iran-backed Shiite blocs losing seats to the Sadrists.

Al-Sadr, who has in the past positioned himself against both Iran and the United States, is popular in Iraq. However, his attempts to form a government have foundered in the months following the election amid opposition from rival blocs.

Finally, in July, the Coordination Framework, the largest Shiite alliance in the Iraqi parliament, nominated Mohammed Shiya al-Sudani to lead the country — sparking a wave of protests by those loyal to al-Sadr.

Iraqi security forces on Monday called on thousands of protesters to withdraw immediately from inside the Green Zone. In a statement, the Iraqi military said they were practicing “the highest levels of self-restraint and brotherly behavior to prevent clashes or the spilling of Iraqi blood.”

“The security forces affirm their responsibility to protect government institutions, international missions, and public and private properties,” the statement said, adding: “Dealing with peaceful demonstrations is done through the constitution and laws, and the security forces will do their duty to protect security and stability.”

The military declared a full curfew, including on vehicles and pedestrians, starting from 3:30 p.m. local time in the capital city and 7 p.m. local time in the rest of the country. The curfew will be in place until further notice, according to a military statement.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has also urged protesters leave governmental buildings and to “allow the government to continue its responsibilities of running the state” for the Iraqi people.

“State institutions must operate unimpeded in service of the Iraqi people, under all circumstances and at all times. Respect for constitutional order will now prove vital,” UNAMI said in a statement released on Monday.

The US embassy in Baghdad also urged calm, tweeting that “now is the time for dialogue to resolve differences, not through confrontation.”
“The right to peaceful public protest is a fundamental element of all democracies, but demonstrators must also respect the institutions and property of the Iraqi government, which belong to and serve the Iraqi people and should be allowed to function,” the embassy added.

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World

Iraq protests turn deadly after prominent cleric quits politics

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BAGHDAD — Followers of a prominent Shiite cleric stormed Iraq’s presidential palace Monday, in an outburst of anger following the cleric’s vow to quit politics that resulted in clashes with security forces and left at least 12 people dead, health officials said.

By late evening, gunfire and explosions were rattling windows across the capital, as long-simmering political arguments gave way to the deployment of heavy weapons and mortar rounds.

The violence was the most serious during a summer of unrest in Iraq, which has been without a government for the better part of a year and captive to escalating feuds between political factions, including followers of the cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, and rival Shiite groups that are backed by Iran.

Sadr’s followers stormed the palace Monday after he announced his “final” retirement from politics — a threat he has made before, during years in the public eye, but one that could have more serious consequences in the charged political climate, and with the country ruled by a caretaker government.

“You are free of me,” Sadr told his supporters in a resignation message posted Monday afternoon on Twitter.

The fallout was immediate. Sadr’s supporters, who had been holding a sit-in inside the Green Zone, where government offices and diplomatic missions are located, scaled the gates of the palace and paraded through its ornate halls, in scenes shared on social media. Soon afterward, sounds of live ammunition echoed in the capital, as security forces descended on the protesters.

Elsewhere in Iraq, Sadr’s supporters blocked roads and government buildings, including in Basra, to the south. The U.N. mission in Iraq called the developments an “extremely dangerous escalation” and implored protesters to withdraw from the Green Zone.

“Iraqis cannot be held hostage to an unpredictable and untenable situation. The very survival of the State is at stake,” the mission said in a statement.

Iraq’s political dysfunction — a feature of civic life since the U.S. invasion nearly two decades ago entrenched a sectarian, kleptocratic order — entered its latest phase in October, when Sadr won the largest number of seats in parliament but failed to form a government. After months of political paralysis, Sadr withdrew his lawmakers from the legislature in June and sent his followers to occupy the parliament.

A rival political bloc, comprising Shiite groups backed by Iran, has also held protests and sit-ins in the Green Zone, raising fears of a confrontation. In the background of the political infighting, Iraqis have suffered mightily, as state institutions, from schools to hospitals, deteriorate without government support.

Sadr, a populist who has opposed both U.S. and Iranian influence in Iraq, has called for early elections, as well as the barring of political figures who served after the U.S. invasion from working in government.

The reasons for his latest political gambit were unclear, but it came on the same day an aging cleric who was considered a supporter of Sadr and his family announced his own retirement, in a statement that contained several digs at Sadr.

The statement by Grand Ayatollah Kadhim Husayni al-Haeri, who lives in Iran, called on his followers to support Iran’s supreme leader — rather than Iraq-based Shiite clerics — and also criticized Sadr, without naming him, suggesting he lacked the “conditions required” for leadership.

The statement had a “big impact” on Sadr, who probably thought that his Iran-backed Shiite rivals were behind the cleric’s retirement, said Ali Al-Mayali, an Iraqi political analyst. Those rivals, he said, had rejected Sadr’s attempts to form a government.

“Sadrists since the beginning have been hinting at civil disobedience as their last choice. I believe Sadr’s tweet … is the green light for the civil disobedience as his last step” against his Shiite rivals, Mayali said.

By nightfall, there were unconfirmed reports of armed attacks on installations used by Iran-backed Shiite militias across the country, including in Basra.

Health officials on Monday did not identify the victims of the violence in Baghdad but said some had been shot in the chest or stomach. A statement Monday night by Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, said the use of live ammunition by security forces was “strictly prohibited,” and he called for the protection of protesters.

Fahim reported from Istanbul.



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World

Iraqi Shiite cleric plans to resign; followers storm palace

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BAGHDAD (AP) — A hugely influential Shiite cleric announced Monday he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response, sparking fears that violence could erupt in a country already beset by its worst political crisis in years.

Iraq’s military announced a city-wide curfew in the capital and the caretaker premier suspended Cabinet sessions in response to the unrest.

Hundreds pulled down the cement barriers outside the government palace with ropes and breached the palace gates. Many rushed into the lavish salons and marbled halls of the palace, a key meeting place for Iraqi heads of state and foreign dignitaries.

Protests have also broken out in the Shiite-majority southern provinces with al-Sadr’s supporters burning tires and blocking road in the oil-rich province of Basra and hundreds demonstrating outside the governorate building in Missan.

Iraq’s government has been deadlocked since cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s party won the largest share of seats in October parliamentary elections but not enough to secure a majority government, the longest since the U.S.-led invasion reset the political order. His refusal to negotiate with Iran-backed Shiite rivals and subsequent exit from the talks has catapulted the country into political uncertainty and volatility amid intensifying intra-Shiite wrangling.

To further his political interests al-Sadr has wrapped his rhetoric with a nationalist and reform agenda that resonates powerfully among his broad grassroots base who hail from Iraq’s poorest sectors of society and have historically been shut out from the political system. They are calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections without the participation of Iran-backed groups, which they see as responsible for the status quo.

Iran considers intra-Shiite disharmony as a threat against its influence in Iraq and has repeatedly attempted to broker dialogue with al-Sadr.

In July, Al-Sadr’s supporters broke into the parliament to deter his rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of mostly Iran-aligned Shiite parties, from forming a government. Hundreds of them have been staging a sit-in outside the building for over four weeks. His bloc has also resigned from parliament. The Framework is lead by al-Sadr’s chief nemesis former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Having a say in the forming the next government – which involves divvying up state resources and finances – has become a zero-sum game for political survival for the rival factions, further exacerbated by al-Sadr’s reticence to include Iran friendly groups in the process. The impasse has ushered in a new era of instability and raised the specter of intra-sectarian street battles.

Monday’s breach of the palace marked a new escalation in the political struggle and the possibility for bloodshed.

This is not the first time al-Sadr, who has called for early elections and the dissolution of parliament, has announced his retirement from politics — and many dismissed the latest move as another bluff to gain greater leverage against his rivals amid a worsening stalemate. The cleric has used the tactic on previous occasions when political developments did not go his way.

But many are concerned that it’s a risky gambit and are worried how it will impact Iraq’s fragile political climate. By stepping out of the political process, al-Sadr is giving his followers, most disenfranchised from the political system, to act as they see fit.

Al-Sadr derives his political power from a large grassroots following, but he also commands a militia. He also maintains a great degree of influence within Iraq’s state institutions through the appointments of key civil servant positions.

His Iran-backed rivals also have militia groups.

Iraq’s military swiftly announced a city-wide curfew on Monday in the hopes of calming rising tensions and heading off the possibility of clashes. It called on the cleric’s supporters to withdraw immediately from the heavily fortified government zone and to practice self-restraint “to prevent clashes or the spilling of Iraqi blood,” according to a statement.

“The security forces affirm their responsibility to protect government institutions, international missions, public and private properties,” the statement said.

Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called on al-Sadr to request his followers to withdraw from government institutions. He also announced cabinet meetings would be suspended.

The cleric announced his withdrawal from politics in a tweet, and ordered the closure of his party offices. Religious and cultural institutions will remain open.

Al-Sadr’s decision on Monday appeared to be in part a reaction to the retirement of Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, who counts many of al-Sadr’s supporters as followers.

The previous day, al-Haeri announced he would be stepping down as a religious authority for health reasons and called on his followers to throw their allegiance behind Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rather than the Shiite spiritual center in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.

The move was a blow to al-Sadr. In his statement he said al-Haeri’s stepping down “was not out of his own volition.”

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World

Many feared dead, including prominent cleric, after bombing at mosque in Kabul

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A bombing at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul during evening prayers on Wednesday killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, an eyewitness and police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest to strike the country in the year since the Taliban seized power.

The Islamic State group’s local affiliate has stepped up attacks targeting the Taliban and civilians since the former insurgents’ takeover last August as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their withdrawal from the country. Last week, the IS claimed responsibility for killing a prominent Taliban cleric at his religious center in Kabul.

According to the eyewitness, a resident of the city’s Kher Khanna neighborhood where the Siddiquiya Mosque was targeted, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber. The slain cleric was Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabuli, the eyewitness said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

He added that more than 30 other people were wounded. The Italian Emergency hospital in Kabul said that at least 27 wounded civilians, including five children, were brought there from the site of the bomb blast.

Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kabul police chief, confirmed an explosion inside a mosque in northern Kabul but would not provide a casualty toll or a breakdown of the dead and wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also condemned the explosion and vowed that the “perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.”

A U.S.-led invasion toppled the previous Taliban government, which had hosted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Since regaining power, the former insurgents have faced a crippling economic crisis as the international community, which does not recognize the Taliban government, froze funding to the country.

Separately, the Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that they had captured and killed Mehdi Mujahid in western Herat province as he was trying to cross the border into Iran.

Mujahid was a former Taliban commander in the district of Balkhab in northern Sar-e-Pul province, and the only member of the minority Shiite Hazara community among the Taliban ranks.

Mujahid had turned against the Taliban over the past year, after opposing decisions made by Taliban leaders in Kabul.

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Crowd confronts cleric at Iran tower collapse that killed 32

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Protesters angry over a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 32 people shouted down an emissary sent by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparking a crackdown that saw riot police club demonstrators and fire tear gas, according to online videos analyzed on Monday.

The demonstration directly challenged the Iranian government’s response to the disaster a week ago as pressure rises in the Islamic Republic over rising food prices and other economic woes amid the unravelling of its nuclear deal with world powers.

While the protests so far still appear to be leaderless, even Arab tribes in the region seemed to join them Sunday, raising the risk of the unrest intensifying. Already, tensions between Tehran and the West have spiked after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Friday seized two Greek oil tankers seized at sea.

Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari AleKasir tried to address upset mourners near the site of the 10-story Metropol Building but hundreds gathered Sunday night instead booed and shouted.

Surrounded by bodyguards, the ayatollah, in his 60s, tried to continue but couldn’t.

“What’s happening?” the cleric stage-whispered to a bodyguard, who then leaned in to tell him something.

The cleric then tried to address the crowd again: “My dears, please keep calm, as a sign of respect to Abadan, its martyrs and the dear (victims) the whole Iranian nation is mourning tonight.”

The crowd responded by shouting: “Shameless!”

A live broadcast on state television of the event then cut out. Demonstrators later chanted: “I will kill; I will kill the one who killed my brother!”

The Tehran-based daily newspaper Hamshahri and the semiofficial Fars news agency said the protesters attacked the platform where state TV had set up its camera, cutting off its broadcast.

Police ordered the crowd not to chant slogans against the Islamic Republic and then ordered them to leave, calling their rally illegal. Video later showed officers confronting and clubbing demonstrators as clouds of tear gas rose. At least one officer fired what appeared to be a shotgun, though it wasn’t clear if it was live fire or so-called “beanbag” rounds designed to stun.

It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured or if police made any arrests.

The details in the videos corresponded to known features of Abadan, located some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. Foreign-based Farsi-language television channels described tear gas and other shots being fired.

Independent newsgathering remains extremely difficult in Iran. During unrest, Iran has disrupted internet and telephone communications to affected areas, while also limiting the movement of journalists inside of the country. Reporters Without Borders describes the Islamic Republic as the third-worst country in the world to be a journalist — behind only North Korea and Eritrea.

Following the tower collapse in Abadan last Monday, authorities have acknowledged the building’s owner and corrupt government officials had allowed construction to continue at the Metropol Building despite concerns over its shoddy workmanship. Authorities have arrested 13 people as part of a broad investigation into the disaster, including the city’s mayor.

Rescue teams pulled three more bodies from the rubble on Monday, bringing the death toll in the collapse to 32, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Authorities fear more people could be trapped under the debris.

The deadly collapse has raised questions about the safety of similar buildings in the country and underscored an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects. The collapse reminded many of the 2017 fire and collapse of the iconic Plasco building in Tehran that killed 26 people.

In Tehran, the city’s emergency department warned that 129 high-rise buildings in the capital remained “unsafe,” based on a survey in 2017. The country’s prosecutor-general, Mohammad Javad Motazeri, has promised to address the issue immediately.

Abadan has also seen disasters in the past. In 1978, an intentionally set fire at Cinema Rex — just a few blocks away from the collapsed building in modern Abadan — killed hundreds. Anger over the blaze triggered unrest across Iran’s oil-rich regions and helped lead to the Islamic Revolution that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Abadan, in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, is home to Iran’s Arab minority, who long have complained about being treated as second-class citizens in the Persian nation. Arab separatists in the region have launched attacks on pipelines and security forces in the past. Videos and the newspaper Hamshahri noted that two tribes had come into the city to support the protests.

Meanwhile, one of the two Greek tankers seized by Iran on Friday turned on its tracking devices for the first time since the incident. The oil tanker Prudent Warrior gave a satellite position Monday off Bandar Abbas, a major Iranian port, according to data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by The Associated Press.

Five armed guards were on the Prudent Warrior on Monday, though Iranian authorities were allowing the crew to use their mobile phones, said George Vakirtzis, the chief financial officer of the ship’s manager Polembros Shipping.

“The whole thing is political and in the hands of the Greek Foreign Office and the Iranian government,” Vakirtzis told the AP.

Monday night, Iranian state TV aired footage of the raid on the Prudent Warrior. The video showed masked Guard troops land a helicopter on the ship, then storm the civilian ship’s bridge armed with assault rifles.

It remains unclear where the second ship, the Delta Poseidon, is.

———

Follow Jon Gambrell and Isabel DeBre on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP and www.twitter.com/isabeldebre.



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World

Uganda police kill five men after suicide bombings, including Muslim cleric | Uganda

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Ugandan authorities have killed at least five people, including a Muslim cleric, accused of having ties to the extremist group responsible for Tuesday’s suicide bombings in the capital.

Four men were killed in a shootout in a frontier town near the western border with Congo as they tried to cross back into Uganda, police said on Thursday. A fifth man, a cleric named Muhammad Kirevu, was killed in “a violent confrontation” when security forces raided his home outside Kampala, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said.

A second cleric, Suleiman Nsubuga, is the subject of a manhunt, he said, accusing the two clerics of radicalising young Muslim men and encouraging them to join underground cells to carry out violent attacks.

The police raids come after the explosions on Tuesday in which at least four civilians were killed when suicide bombers detonated their explosives at two locations in Kampala. One attack happened near the parliamentary building and the second near a busy police station. The attacks sparked chaos and confusion in the city as well as outpourings of concern from the international community.

A total of 21 suspects with alleged links to the perpetrators are in custody, Enanga said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s explosions, saying they were carried out by Ugandans. Authorities blamed the attacks on the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, an extremist group that has been allied with IS since 2019.

President Yoweri Museveni identified the alleged suicide bombers in a statement in which he warned that security forces were “coming for” alleged members of the ADF.

While Ugandan authorities are under pressure to show they are in control of the situation, the killings of suspects raise fears of a crackdown in which innocent people will become victims.

Despite the horror of the bomb attacks, “it remains critical to ensure no terrorist attack translates into a blank check to violate human rights under a pretext of fighting terror”, said Maria Burnett, a rights lawyer with the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

“Across east Africa, terrorism has been a pretext at times to ensnare political opponents, civic actors, and even refugees seeking protection,” she said. “Such actions risk radicalising people in support of non-state actors and hands those actors an easy propaganda tool.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which Ugandan security have allegedly tortured ADF suspects and held them without trial for long periods.

The ADF has for years been opposed to the long rule of Museveni, a US security ally who was the first African leader to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia to protect the federal government from the extremist group al-Shabaab.

In retaliation over Uganda’s deployment of troops to Somalia, that group carried out attacks in 2010 that killed at least 70 people who had assembled in public places in Kampala to watch the football World Cup final.

But the ADF, with its local roots, has become a more pressing challenge to Museveni, 77, who has ruled Uganda for 35 years and was reelected to a five-year term in January.

The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been sidelined by Museveni’s policies. At the time, the rebel group staged deadly attacks in Ugandan villages as well as in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town near the Congo border.

A Ugandan military assault later forced the rebels into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to roam free because the central government has limited control there.

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Protesters block roads to stop enthronement of Montenegro’s top cleric

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PODGORICA, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Several thousand protesters used tyres, rocks and vehicles to block roads leading to the city of Cetinje in southwest Montenegro on Saturday in a bid to stop the Serbian Orthodox Church holding an enthronement ceremony for its new top cleric.

The protests reflect tensions in the Balkan country, which remains deeply divided over its ties with Serbia, with some advocating closer ties with Belgrade and others opposing any pro-Serb alliance.

Montenegro left its union with Serbia in 2006 but its church did not get autonomy and remained under the Serbian Orthodox Church, making it a symbol to some of Serbian influence.

Opponents of the enthronement of Joanikije II to the top clerical position, known as the Metropolitan of Montenegro and Archbishop of Cetinje, pushed through police barricades on Saturday, taking control of roads leading to the city.

At one point police used tear gas but this failed to disperse the protesters who said they would hold the barricades through the night.

Protesters also took down a fence the police had put around the monastery in Cetinje where the enthronement is supposed to take place on Sunday morning.

“We are on the barricades today because we are fed up with Belgrade denying our nation, and telling us what are our religious rights,” protestor Andjela Ivanovic told Reuters. “All religious objects (churches) built in Montenegro belong to people here and to the state of Montenegro.”

In the capital Podgorica by contrast, thousands gathered to greet the Serbian Patriarch who arrived on Saturday afternoon. None of the church officials talked about the possibility of moving the date or the venue of the enthronement ceremony.

Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Stevo Vasiljevic; Editing by David Holmes

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Pope Francis holds historic meeting with revered Shia cleric in Iraq’s Najaf

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The 45-minute papal meeting in the holy city of Najaf with the 90-year old al-Sistani — who rarely appears in public — represented one of the most significant summits between a pope and a leading Shia Muslim figure in recent years.

During the meeting, broadcast on al-Iraqiya state TV, al-Sistani thanked Francis for making an effort to travel to Najaf and told him that Christians in Iraq should live “like all Iraqis in security and peace, and with their full constitutional rights,” according to a statement released by the Grand Ayatollah’s office.

The Pope in turn thanked al-Sistani and the Shia Muslim community for “[raising] his voice in defense of the weakest and most persecuted, affirming the sacredness of human life and the importance of the unity of the Iraqi people,” according to a statement from the Holly Sea.

The Pope also stressed the importance of collaboration and friendship between religious communities.

Pope Francis’s four-day tour of Iraq across six cities is the first papal visit to the country, and Francis’ first trip outside Italy since the coronavirus pandemic began.

After Najaf, the Pope traveled to Nasiriya, where he held an inter-religious meeting on the plain of Ur, considered the birthplace of Abraham.

In Ur, the Pope spoke about the violence that has plagued Iraq in recent years. “All its ethnic and religious communities have suffered. In particular, I would like to mention the Yazidi community, which has mourned the deaths of many men and witnessed thousands of women, girls and children kidnapped, sold as slaves, subjected to physical violence and forced conversions,” he said.

In the speech, Francis also praised the recovery efforts in Northern Iraq, where ISIS terrorist destroyed historical sites, churches, monasteries and other places of worship. “I think of the young Muslim volunteers of Mosul, who helped to repair churches and monasteries, building fraternal friendships on the rubble of hatred, and those Christians and Muslims who today are restoring mosques and churches together,” he said.

The Pope touched down in Baghdad on Friday, where he was met by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Francis later met with clerics and other officials at a Baghdad church that was the site of a bloody 2010 massacre.

Iraq has imposed a total curfew for the entirety of the four-day papal visit to minimize health and security risks. Francis is scheduled to leave Iraq on Monday.

Francis has met with leading Sunni cleric Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb on several occasions in the past, famously co-signing a 2019 document pledging “human fraternity” between world religions.

CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi, Delia Gallagher and Aqeel Najm contributed to this article.

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