Word: meccas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fury fresh and lethal. "Death to America!" they chanted in the near 100 degrees heat. Their rage rose higher still as Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of Iran's parliament, called upon Allah to "avenge the blood" of nearly 300 Iranian pilgrims who had been killed a week earlier in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Rafsanjani also uttered a demand that sent a tremor through the Arab world and beyond: the rulers of Saudi Arabia, the keepers of Mecca, must be "uprooted...
Then came the hypnotic voice of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 87, still the country's supreme leader. Speaking in fierce whispers over nationwide radio, Khomeini first lashed out at the "inept and spineless" Saudi Arabian royal family. But he placed the blame for the bloody deaths in Mecca squarely on the U.S., still the "Great Satan" in the eyes of the fevered Iranian nation, and vowed vengeance. Promised Khomeini: "God willing, at the opportune time we shall deal with...
...nations broke off relations last month. The French aircraft carrier Clemenceau last week steamed to the gulf as Iranian police continued to hold 15 French citizens hostage in the French embassy in Tehran. Tensions remained high between Iran and Britain over earlier incidents involving their diplomats. After the Mecca tragedy, gangs ransacked the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian embassies in the Iranian capital and took four Saudis prisoner...
...Navy helicopter trying to land on the command ship of the task force crashed, with four Americans presumed dead. And the whole region was on edge in the wake of a protest by Iranian pilgrims that turned into a bloodbath in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca. The week's events reminded a twitchy U.S. of the very real risks that come with flying the flag in far-flung corners of the world...
...Tehran, the interior minister accused Washington of responsibility for the Mecca bloodshed. He urged Moslems everywhere to undermine American and Saudi interests...