 Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, has called for an end to sectarian "hatred and violence".
| Yep. That oughta take care of it... |
The grand ayatollah said the violence would only prolong the presence of US forces in the country. His call came as the US military admitted the level of violence was little changed since a large security crackdown in Baghdad last month.
| Still too many masterminds at large. And too many money men. |
A number of people were killed in fresh violence in the capital and other parts of the country on Thursday.
| And, I might add, too many holy men. With Iran driving the violence from one direction and the Saddam remnants from the other — Izzat Ibrahim's still at large, Raghad's still comfy in Jordan, and Assad's still in power in Syria — we're not going to see a significant dropoff. The bad guyz, on the other hand, can't kick us out, so the best they can do is try to make the country uninhabitable. |
Correspondents say the ayatollah's comments were his strongest public statements on the issue of sectarian violence in recent months. "I call on all sons of Iraq... to be aware of the danger threatening their nation's future and stand shoulder to shoulder in confronting it by rejecting hatred and violence," he said.
| Blah blah... shoulder to shoulder... reject hatred and violence... we should all be nice... Whoopdy doo. Killing Tater would be a lot more to the point... |
Ayatollah Sistani said the bombing in February of a Shia shrine in Samarra had unleashed "blind violence".
| I'd call it "mindless violence," myself. It's pure destructiveness... |
Unless halted the violence would "harm the unity of the people and block their hopes of liberation and independence for a long time", he said.
| I think that's been done... |
The US military on Wednesday again urged the Sunni and Shia communities to root out militias and death squads.
| The bad part about the death squads is that both sides can use them... |
But the US military admitted on Thursday the massive security clampdown that followed the killing of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had achieved only a "slight downtick" in violence.
| On the other hand, he is dead. That counts for a lot in my book... |
The security plan included up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets of Baghdad and more checkpoints and raids on violent areas. US Maj Gen William Caldwell said: "We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world." The US said attacks had risen from an average of 24 a day between 14 June and 13 July to about 34 a day over the past five days.
| Has anybody but me noticed that we've got two offensives going between competing death squads? Maybe we should kill the people behind both of them, which'd be Tater and the Association of Muslim Scholars. |
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