Iaqi leader blasts Sunni hardliners

[rodeodance]

Source: ap


By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Shiite prime minister said Friday hard-line Sunni clerics outside Iraq share the blame for this week's bloodshed at a Shiite religious festival in Karbala because they issued religious decrees terming Shiites heretics.


Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not spell out how comments by Sunni clerics — presumed to be mostly from Saudi Arabia — could have provoked fierce battles last Tuesday among rival Shiite militias, which claimed up to 51 lives. Iraq's majority Shiites widely believe that Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia have stoked sectarian tensions by preaching against Shiites.

But his remarks appeared to suggest that security guards around the city's Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas mosques may have overreacted, fearing an all-out attack on the shrines by Sunni extremists mingled into a crowd of pilgrims who approached chanting anti-government slogans.

Al-Maliki's attempt to cast blame on foreign Sunni preachers also appeared aimed at deflecting criticism away from the armed Shiite militias that security officials said were responsible for the bloodshed in Karbala, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

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