Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose directives can send thousands of heavily armed militiamen spilling into the streets, called for calm yesterday and blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for the carnage in Baghdad's Sadr City slum that killed at least 48 people on Sunday and wounded more than 200.
Speaking at a news conference in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, al-Sadr also sought to blunt rage against Iraq's minority Sunni Muslim community in a bid to prevent the country from slipping into full-blown civil war.
"We are not weak, but we don't want to be dragged to a civil war. So, I will keep calling for calm," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
Al-Sadr is one of the country's most influential Shiite figures. Millions of Shiite faithful hang on his words and yesterday he used them for a bitter attack on Iraqi leaders.
"The politicians are busy, with one saying I want to be the prime minister and the other saying I want to be the president. They have forgotten the people and are looking out only for their narrow interests," he said.
By blaming Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda fighters for the attack, al-Sadr lifted the onus of blame from the mainstream Sunni community.
While Sunnis have been deeply involved the insurgency that has raged in Iraq since shortly after the US-led invasion toppled former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, their fighters have mainly fought separately from al-Qaeda forces which are mainly from outside Iraq.
Al-Sadr's reaction to the deadly bombings in Sadr City about nightfall on Sunday was viewed as critical to how the country's majority Shiites would respond the attack. His declaration yesterday had the potential to inspire all-out civil strife.
Sectarian feelings were inflamed to the brink of civil war by bombing of a Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 and the subsequent revenge killings that targeted the Sunni community and damaged and destroyed dozens of its mosques.
There also has been a leadership void as bickering Iraqi politicians have held up a first session of parliament for three months after its election Dec. 15, unable to agree about the make up of a new government that must be approved within 60 days of the legislature's first sitting.
On Sunday the country's major party leaders agreed to daily meetings beginning today in a bid to hammer out differences. Parliament is now scheduled to open for the first time on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the bodies of four men, shot to death and carrying signs saying "traitor," were found yesterday in Sadr City, security officials said. Their identity was not immediately known.
A roadside bomb also wounded four policemen and six civilians in Baghdad yesterday, while another bomb in Taji, just north of the capital, killed one and injured six.
In Iskandariyah a bomb killed one civilian and wounded three more. And one Iraqi was killed and 12 wounded yesterday when two car bombs exploded within 15 minutes of each other in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
In other developments, one of Saddam's co-defendants yesterday denied responsibility for a massacre before the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Mohammed Azawi Ali, a low-level official of the former ruling Baath Party, was the fourth of eight defendants to take the stand since the accused started to testify yesterday in connection with the killing of 148 villagers from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.
Each defendant is to answer questions from the chief judge and chief prosecutor.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS