‘Painful bloodshed’

I raq’s top Shiite cleric yesterday condemned recent deadly attacks on anti-government demonstrators and called out state security forces for not doing more to prevent violence in protest squares across the country.

Eight demonstrators were killed this week in attacks on protest camps by supporters of the populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, including in the shrine city of Najaf – home to Iraq’s Shiite religious leadership. In his weekly sermon delivered by a representative, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani condemned the bloodshed as “painful and unfortunate” and said state security forces were “indispensable” to keeping the country from “falling into the abyss of chaos”.

“There is no justification for them to stop fulfilling their duties in this regard, or for anyone to stop them from doing so,” Mr Al Sistani said. “They must bear responsibility for maintaining security and stability, protecting peaceful protesters and their gathering places, revealing the identities of aggressors and infiltrators, and protecting the interests of citizens from the attacks of saboteurs.

” Earlier this week, Mr Al Sadr called on his supporters to ensure the reopening of schools, roads and government offices that had been shut by months of demonstrations. Nearly 490 people have been killed in protest-related violence since October, when rallies erupted in Baghdad and across the Shiite-majority south demanding an overhaul of the political elite.

Security forces responded with tear gas, live rounds and even machine gun fire, which Mr Al Sistani had condemned in previous sermons. This week, demonstrators said they faced a new threat from supporters of Mr Al Sadr, who initally backed the protest movement but then threw his support behind the nomination of Mohammad Allawi as Iraq’s new prime minister last weekend.

Most protesters rejected twotime communications minister as too close to the political elite they had been demonstrating against for months.