Safety of top Iraq cleric(Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani) questioned

Source: Associated Press

BAGHDAD—The safety of Iraq's pre-eminent Shiite cleric is in question after one of his close aides was stabbed to death in the Muslim leader's compound in the holy city of Najaf, a place beset by unsolved murders and believed to be infiltrated by insurgents.

Najaf's police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Mayahi, said late Sunday that authorities had arrested the alleged killer—a security guard at the compound of the much-revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

An official at the Iranian-born cleric's office said the person arrested may have only played a supporting role in the weekend killing of Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi. His death came a little over a month after another al-Sistani aide was killed in a drive-by shooting.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said al-Sistani's office will launch an independent investigation into the killing of Al-Basrawi, a confidante of al-Sistani who was in his late 30s.

According to different police accounts, al-Basrawi was slain late Friday or early Saturday at his office, which is approximately 30 to 40 yards away from where al-Sistani works and lives.



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Juan Cole's comment..........

Radical Sunni groups have vowed several times on the internet to kill Sistani. His death might well throw Iraq into fatal turmoil.

http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/us-raids-umm-al-qura-mosque-sistani.html

...but lets not call it genocide or a religious civil war

/sarc

He is one of a very small number of grand poobahs of one of the two major divisions of the muslim religion.

I dunno if it's genocide yet, but civil war and/or colonial war, yeah, no question about it.