Latest on STONING the DEVIL

  The devil had it really bad at his abode this year as nearly two million Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of the devil on Monday, the riskiest part

of the annual haj pilgrimage, a year after the ritual's worst disaster in decades.

Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organizing the world's largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed thousands of security forces, civil defense staff and volunteers as well as modern technology including drones and electronic bracelets to ensure a safe pilgrimage.

     Last year 2015 Saudi Arabia said that nearly 800 pilgrims were killed when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual at Jamarat.

Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Saudi authorities have said that some 1.86 million Muslims from around the world are performing the pilgrimage at Islam's holiest city, one of the main pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim is required to undertake at least once.

That is less than previous years, when up to 3 million pilgrims have attended. Authorities say disruption caused by expansion work and infrastucture projects in Mecca have combined with conflicts in the region to restrict the numbers.

Under close supervision from Saudi authorities, pilgrims in seamless white clothes, converged on Jamarat carrying the pebbles to perform the ritual from a three-storey bridge erected to ease congestion.

In previous years, jostling to perform the stoning before returning to pray at the Grand Mosque accounted for many of the frequent stampedes and crushes that had afflicted haj.

"This year, they have organized the situation better," said Abdel-Rahman Badr, an Egyptian pilgrim. "I feel happy to be conducting the haj rituals," he added.