Troops, Militants Clash In Mosul
Shiite, Sunni Clerics Killed In Increase Of Sectarian Tension
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The body of Shiite cleric Sheik Mouwaffaq al-Husseini is taken away from Yarmouk hospital, after he was hit in a drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen in Baghdad's western Jihad neighborhood. (AP)
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Aftermath of car bomb blast in southern Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and U.S. Army troops in Irbil, Iraq, Sunday, May 15, 2005. (AP)
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Shaab, a Shiite dominated area, was also where six bodies were found late Sunday near a dam. Two other victims were found alive but died later in the hospital. They were among the bodies of 50 men slain and dumped in various locations across Iraq.
Sheik Hamed al-Khazraji, a spokesman from the Sunni Muslim Association of Muslim Scholars, identified the two slain clerics as Sheik Hassan al-Naimi and Sheik Talal Nayef and confirmed the circumstances of their kidnappings.
Al-Naimi's body was found Tuesday and Nayef's on Monday, police and al-Khazraji said. The locations were their bodies were found were not immediately known.
An Associated Press photographer saw al-Naimi's relatives preparing documents to retrieve his body from Baghdad's coroner's office, where it was taken.
Attacks among Sunnis and Shiites have become common in the past weeks amid fears of violence between the two groups. Dozens of bodies of people from both sects were found in different areas around Baghdad.
Shiite cleric Qassim al-Gharawi died in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad last week. Quraish Abdul Jabbar, a Sunni cleric, was reported shot dead and his body dumped behind a mosque in northeastern Baghdad on Monday.
During a Monday meeting with Iraq's top Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, al-Jaafari said his new government "will strike against any criminal who tries to harm a Sunni or a Shiite citizen with an iron fist."
Al-Sistani also stressed the need for "fighting terrorism and guaranteeing security," but also urged his Shiite followers to exercise restraint in the face of provocative attacks, his aide said on condition of anonymity.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
