Al-Sistani Urges End to Sectarian Violence

[cal04]

Iraq's top Shiite cleric urged his followers Thursday to refrain from reprisal violence against Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian bloodshed that threatens to erupt into full-scale civil war.

The statement by Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani came as U.S. military officials reported a 40 percent increase in the daily average of attacks in the Baghdad area.

U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said there has been an average of 34 attacks a day against U.S. and Iraqi forces in the capital over the past five days. The daily average for the period June 14 until July 13 was 24 a day, he said.


(snip)

Alarmed by the rising pattern of tit-for-tat violence over the past five months, al-Sistani urged religious and community leaders to ``exert maximum efforts to stop the bloodletting.'' He warned that the ongoing violence will only prolong the presence of U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5963653,00.html

[grytpype]

1. If Sistani can't stop this then no one can.

And then we are in deep doodoo.