|
Alsadr asks sunni leader to stop bloodshed { November 25 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1797154.htmhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1797154.htm
Last Update: Saturday, November 25, 2006. 1:30am (AEDT)
Sunni leader must stop bloodshed, says Sadr
A day after seeing his Baghdad power base devastated by explosions, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on Iraq's most prominent Sunni religious leader to tell his followers to stop killing Shiites.
Sadr, who on Thursday blamed Sunni Islamist Al Qaeda militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists for the blasts which killed 202 people, made the call during a Friday sermon in Kufa, just outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
It was directed at Harith al-Dari, the head of Iraq's influential Muslim Clerics Association, an umbrella group for Sunni religious leaders, who is wanted by Iraqi authorities on suspicion of links to terrorism charges. Dari, who lives abroad, denies the accusations.
Sadr said Dari must issue religious rulings, or fatwas, to fellow minority Sunnis, who form the backbone of a three-year-old insurgency, forbidding the killing of Shiites or membership of Al Qaeda.
"He has to release a fatwa prohibiting the killing of Shiites so as to preserve Muslim blood and must prohibit membership of al Qaeda or any other organisation that has made (Shiites) their enemies," he told chanting supporters.
Dari should also order Sunnis to support the rebuilding of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, whose destruction in February, blamed on al Qaeda, sparked a vicious cycle of sectarian revenge killings that shows no signs of abating.
"If Harith al-Dari issues these fatwas I will oppose his arrest warrant," Sadr said.
The arrest warrant issued last week enraged Sunnis, who accuse Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of turning a blind eye to militias tied to parties within his own government, who have been blamed for some of the worst sectarian violence.
Dari and his association, which says the Sunni insurgency against US forces is legitimate, have issued statements in the past condemning attacks on Shiite civilians but have never banned membership of insurgent groups.
Dari told Reuters in Amman this week that the Government had trumped up the charges to undermine his role in defending a community which he said faced the brunt of the killings.
Death toll
The death toll from a series of car bombs in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in the Iraqi capital has risen to 202, with 250 people wounded.
Doctors say many of the wounded have serious injuries and are unlikely to survive.
Meanwhile two suicide bombers, one in a car and the other wearing an explosive vest, have killed 22 people and wounded 26 in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar.
The violence was the worst since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A Baghdad curfew is absolute and indefinite, with the city's airport closed and the key oil port of Basra in the south - controlled by Shiite parties - also shutting down in sympathy.
In the latest violence, gunmen attacked a Sunni enclave in a mainly Shiite district in Baghdad, burning four mosques and homes, an Interior Ministry official said.
The official said the number of casualties was not known, but a resident of Hurriya district said at least 18 people had been killed and 24 wounded.
"They attacked four mosques with rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire. The attacks began at midday," said the resident, who was helping to evacuate people from their homes.
-Reuters
|
|
