Islamic clerics decree a halt to sectarian bloodshed

From combined dispatches

BAGHDAD — Dozens of Iraqi Shi’ite and Sunni clerics meeting in the Muslim holy city of Mecca yesterday called for an end to sectarian violence that many fear could lead to civil war in Iraq.

Sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the meeting approved a declaration prohibiting the killing of Muslims in Iraq and called for safeguarding the unity of the country.

It also urged the release of Muslim and non-Muslim hostages.

It was not clear what impact the document signed by the dozens of clerics would have on militias that appear to be outside the control of both Shi’ite and Sunni religious authorities, and others that are affiliated with al Qaeda.

Nevertheless, it marked an unprecedented effort by Iraqi religious leaders — who gathered in the Saudi Arabian city where Islam was born — to speak out against the bloodshed that has increased daily throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

Yesterday was no exception as black-uniformed, hooded gunmen loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr briefly seized the major southern city of Amarah.

Twenty-five gunmen and police died in gunbattles between rival Shi’ite factions before the Iraqi army moved in to retake the city of 750,000 people.

The city is famous for its marshlands along the Tigris river 30 miles from the border with Iran, where the Shi’ite theocracy is said to be funding, arming and training both Sheik al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and the rival Badr Brigades.

The Amarah showdown highlighted the potential for an all-out conflict between them and their political sponsors, both with large blocs in parliament and important to the survival of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s shaky four-month-old government.

It also underlined the deep underlying rift that exists between Sheik al-Sadr and the more traditional but powerful Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

SCIRI and its Badr Brigades are headed by key power broker Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who spent decades in Iranian exile during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

The clashes marred the Muslim day of prayer for the second Friday in a row in cities where American and British forces had only recently ceded military control to Iraqi security forces and the army.

More than 100 persons were slain in Balad, a small city north of Baghdad, this past week, most of them by Shi’ite death squads drawn largely from Sheik al-Sadr’s Mahdi militia.

The Mahdi fighters held Amarah for several hours in an embarrassingly strong showing against the local police and security forces, controlled by the Badr Brigade.

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