In a bid to stop sectarian violence, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric ordered all Shiite mosques to close for three days in a town in southern Iraq where a local Sunni Arab leader was assassinated.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued the edict for mosques in Zubayr, where gunmen killed Sunni imam Sheik Khaled Ali Obeid al-Saadoun and two of his associates Wednesday as they left a mosque after evening prayers. Al-Saadoun also had served as the local leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab political group.

Sheik Mohammed Falak, al-Sistani’s representative in Zubayr, said in a statement Wednesday night that al-Sistani ordered Shiite mosques in the town to close from Thursday through Saturday to protest those killings and other attacks that have taken place against religious sites in the mostly Shiite province of Basra.
kare11.com

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