US intel predicts Russia will carry out strikes in Syria

US intel predicts Russia will carry out strikes in Syria

WASHINGTON

A secret U.S. intelligence assessment provided to the White House predicts that the Kremlin will order military strikes in Syria to help prop up President Bashar Assad’s beleaguered government and to stop westward advances by the Islamic State and other rebel groups.

The airstrikes would be conducted by more than two dozen Russian warplanes that were surreptitiously flown to Syria over the past week.

U.S. officials said the Russian pilots turned off their planes’ transponders to avoid detection and hid by flying in close formation with Russian AN-124 Condor cargo planes, which used commercial air corridors over Iraq and Iran.

Iran vows legal action against Saudi Arabia

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran on Saturday vowed to take international legal action against Saudi Arabia’s rulers over the crush of Muslim pilgrims at this year’s hajj, which killed at least 769 people, including 136 Iranians, and has led to an escalation of tensions between the regional archrivals.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir later responded to Iran’s criticism, telling reporters in New York that “I believe that the Iranians should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty, which is the pilgrimage.”

The pilgrims suffocated or were trampled to death Thursday when two massive crowds converged on a narrow street, in the worst disaster to occur during the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century. Shiite Iran has accused Sunni Saudi Arabia of mismanaging the pilgrimage, which annually draws some 2 million people from 180 countries.

NYC mayor meets with Raul Castro

NEW YORK

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has met with Cuban President Raul Castro.

A spokesman for the mayor says the two men met for an hour Saturday at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York. They discussed Cuban history, prekindergarten programs, health care and women’s rights.

Castro is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He met with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday.

Peter Kadushin, de Blasio’s spokesman, says the mission invited the mayor to meet with Castro. He says the two men had a “productive exchange of ideas.”

De Blasio and Castro were joined by members of their families, as well as officials from their administrations.

Group condemns attack on workers at refugee shelter

BERLIN

A German aid group says its volunteers were attacked after helping prepare a new refugee shelter near the eastern state of Saxony.

The Federal Agency for Technical Relief, or THW, says bottles were thrown late Friday and attempts were made to prevent staff from leaving the site in Niederau. Manuel Almanzor, a THW official, said Saturday he was “deeply shocked” by the attack against volunteers carrying out humanitarian work.

Police in Dresden say 20 drunken youths tried to pull down a fence around the site and threw bottles and cigarettes at THW staff.

Steffen Kuehnel of the Dresden police said criminal complaints would be filed against those responsible, but nobody had been arrested.

German officials have counted more than 400 attacks against refugees and shelters this year.

Combined dispatches