Muslim faithful ritually stoned the devil on Wednesday in the climactic ceremony of a hajj pilgrimage held in intense heat and against the backdrop of a war that has plunged the wealthy Gulf into crisis. From dawn, crowds of pilgrims gathered in the valley of Mina, southeast of the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, to throw pebbles at concrete pillars symbolising the devil. It reenacts the Prophet Abraham's stoning of the devil at three places where Satan is said to have tried to dissuade him from obeying God's command to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
