Guerrillas kill leading Shi’ite cleric in Iraq

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen assassinated a leading IraqiShi’ite cleric as he drove to his central Baghdad mosque forprayers on Friday, one of three attacks targeting prominentShi’ites in the capital within 24 hours.

Sectarian violence has worsened since a Shi’ite- andKurdish-led government took power two months ago, withguerrillas from the Sunni Arab minority attacking PrimeMinister Ibrahim Jaafari’s administration and its U.S. allies.

The gunmen made off after killing Kamal al-Dinal-Ghoureify, a representative in Baghdad for Ayatollah Alial-Sistani who is recognized as spiritual leader by many ofIraq’s Shi’ite majority. Sunni Arabs held sway in Iraq underSaddam Hussein.

Police said two of the cleric’s aides were wounded, butofficials in Sistani’s office said the pair were killed.

A suicide car bomber killed a bystander on Friday at ahouse in Baghdad used as an office by Jaafari, a Shi’ite.

Overnight, an uncle and a cousin of another prominentShi’ite politician, national security adviser Mowaffaqal-Rubaie, were shot dead in their shop in Baghdad with fourother people, police and officials said.

IMPATIENCE

The United States is trying to draw Sunni Arabs into thepolitical process in the hope of ending the insurgency, butsome Shi’ite leaders have shown impatience with these efforts.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said earlier this weekAmerican officials had often met insurgents, although he latersaid such meetings did not involve senior figures and were onlypart of ordinary efforts to reach out to communities.

In the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf in the south, a seniorShi’ite cleric and politician accused the United States of”encouraging terrorism” by negotiating with insurgents andslowing down the war crimes trial of Saddam.

“We believe that foot-dragging in trying Saddam and hisaides, and opening dialogue with terrorists, is like giving agreen light to terrorists to come back to this country,” Sadral-Din al-Qubanghi, Najaf head of the Supreme Council for theIslamic Revolution in Iraq, told worshippers at Friday prayers.

“America is interfering in Iraq’s affairs and Iraqis rejectthat,” he said.

A U.S. official in Baghdad, briefing reporters on conditionof anonymity, said he could understand why reports of U.S.contacts with insurgents might have annoyed Shi’ite leaders.

He said Sunni figures claiming to represent insurgentgroups had made a number of approaches, but denied U.S.diplomats had negotiated with gunmen.

“Our policy is we don’t negotiate with insurgents,” hesaid. “We do not talk to people who have killed or who haveprovided material assistance.”

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and AlastairMacdonald in Baghdad, and Khaled Farhan in Najaf)