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Bodies of 3 Iraqi Clerics Reportedly Discovered

Times Staff Writer

One day after Shiite religious and political leaders renewed calls to avoid sectarian violence that could result in a civil war, the bodies of at least three more slain Muslim clerics were reportedly found in Baghdad on Tuesday.

The body of Sunni cleric Hassan Nuaimi, who disappeared Sunday, was turned in at a morgue, according to the hard-line Muslim Scholars Assn., of which Nuaimi was a member. His corpse was said to have been badly mutilated.

The scholars association said Nuaimi had been taken into custody Sunday by uniformed officers of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The association charged that Nuaimi was the victim of “terrorism by the government,” and it called for the resignation of recently appointed Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a Shiite.

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The Interior Ministry denied any knowledge of Nuaimi being arrested by its officers.

Shiite clerics Mani Hassan and Muwaffaq Mansour were killed by gunmen in separate incidents in Baghdad on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Hassan was shot outside his house, and Mansour was ambushed in his car, the news service said.

More than a month of resurgent rebel violence has been augmented by the discovery in recent days of scores of bodies in and around the capital, most of the victims killed execution-style and some beheaded. Many of those killed have been Sunni Arabs, sparking concerns that armed Shiite groups have begun taking revenge despite repeated calls by their religious leaders to exercise restraint against the Sunni-fueled insurgency that has slaughtered thousands of Shiites.

“If this issue is not dealt with, it will become difficult to control,” said a senior Shiite cleric in the holy city of Najaf, speaking on condition of anonymity Tuesday. The cleric, an aide to a member of the marjaiyah, the top Shiite religious elite, acknowledged that Shiite frustration may have reached the point where some people are acting in defiance of religious edicts against retaliation.

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The marjaiyah, led by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has consistently instructed followers not to fight back, while also having marshaled the power of Iraq’s Shiite majority to ensure a dominant performance in January’s election.

Sistani’s word is law for most devout Iraqi Shiites, but some observers believe the patience of his followers is wearing thin.

“The commitment can’t be kept to eternity under the threats and bloody oppression,” said Hussein Sami, a professor of history at Kufa University in Najaf’s sister holy city. “There are people who believe that this is really a sectarian war and there is no need to be patient.”

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Sistani renewed his long-standing call for unity Monday. The leading Shiite cleric rarely makes public appearances or statements, but Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, after a meeting in Sistani’s Najaf home, told reporters that Sistani “insisted on the brotherhood between Shiites and Sunnis.”

Jafari’s government, meanwhile, was taking one major step to bring the temperature down. Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi announced that the government would ban raids on mosques.

It was unclear whether Dulaimi’s ban would apply to the nearly 140,000 U.S. troops upon whom Iraq’s security largely depends. If so it would be the fledging government’s first real attempt to place limits on the actions of American forces.

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U.S. military policy calls for forces to refrain from entering mosques unless the mosques are being used for attacks against American troops.

During the U.S.-led attack on insurgent-held Fallouja in November and the siege of Najaf against radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia in August, mosques and holy shrines were used to store arms and for firing on U.S. troops.

While U.S. forces fired back at their attackers, there was also a clear reluctance to have U.S. troops attack or enter Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine, where Al Mahdi forces were holed up.

Calls for restraint have also come this week from Sadr. In his first public appearance in eight months Monday, Sadr called for unity between Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs.

“There are no Sunnis and Shiites. Iraqis are one,” Sadr said during a news conference in Najaf. “Any action targeting civilians is forbidden under any circumstances.”

The reemergence of Sadr may prove key to quelling Shiite passions. Sadr is the scion of a prominent religious family, but he is an outsider to the Najaf religious elite and has carved a place in modern-day Iraq as more of a radical street politician than a religious scholar.

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He dropped out of public view after the Najaf cease-fire, which was brokered by Sistani.

Sadr remains an implacable foe of the American presence in Iraq. In his Monday appearance, he cited opposition to the U.S. as a rallying point that could bridge Iraq’s sectarian divide.

“If the occupation forces leave Iraq, there will be no ethnic conflict here,” he said. “The occupiers are trying to sow division amid the Iraqi people.”

Special correspondent Saad Fakhrildeen contributed to this report and Times wire services were used in compiling it.

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