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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services

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To: jim black who wrote (37914)	2/21/1999 1:36:00 PM
From: Mike from La.	Read Replies (2) of 95453

The Holy War spreads further. Iran Blames Iraq For Killing Of Senior Cleric TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran blamed Iraq Sunday for the assassination of a leading Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric and his two sons, saying the murders were part of a systematic campaign of repression against the country's Shi'ite community. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement condemning the killings of Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr and his sons Friday, the second attack on senior Shi'ite clerics in Iraq this year. An Iran-based Iraqi Shi'ite opposition group said there were major demonstrations in Baghdad and Karbala in southern Iraq Saturday in protest at the assassinations. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said that dozens were killed and wounded and hundreds more arrested. Iraq has denied reports of protests in the Baghdad area. Iran's state television later accused Iraqi authorities of burying the bodies of the victims before announcing their deaths Saturday. Theological schools in the holy Iranian city of Qom, as well as Tehran's powerful bazaar, were closed Sunday in commemoration of the victims. "Shi'ite Muslims of Iraq have been systematically persecuted in Iraq in recent years. The oppression of Shi'ites in that country has reached its peak now," Khamenei said. The Iranian leader said predominantly Shi'ite Iran held Iraq responsible for the deaths of Sadr and his sons. "Baghdad will be held accountable to the entire world, especially Muslim countries, for what has been happening in Iraq," he said in a statement published in newspapers. Iranian television said relations between Sadr and the Baghdad government turned sour six months ago following the assassination of two other senior Shi'ite clerics in Iraq. It charged that Iraq had recently tried to bar Sadr from holding Friday prayers, but that he had refused to budge. His followers forcibly entered a mosque in southern Iraq last week for the prayers and they intended to do the same this Friday when the ayatollah was assassinated. Sadr, a leading Shi'ite religious figure from the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, was said by Iraqis to be a very popular cleric whose Friday prayers sermons drew large crowds. Iran's Foreign Ministry has demanded the arrest and punishment of the murderers. The Iraqi news agency said Saturday that several of the killers had been arrested and described the murders as part of a plot to provoke unrest in the country. The killings was the second reported attack against a Shi'ite cleric in Iraq this year. Iraqi opposition said last month a cleric was wounded in the southern city of Najaf. There have been recurrent reports of unrest between the Sunni Muslim-led regime of President Saddam Hussein and Shi'ites, who make up 65 percent of Iraq's 22 million people. Mike from La.

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