IRAQ: Iraqi Shia leaders called on their people to show restraint, saying yesterday's twin bomb attacks against sacred centres of their religion were intended to spark civil war.
The attacks in Najaf and Kerbala killed and wounded scores of people six weeks before the January 30th elections, which should give power to the 60 per cent Shia majority for the first time in the history of modern Iraq.
Shia religious leaders and politicians accused Sunni Muslim militants, known as Salafists or Wahabis, and former ruling Baath Party members of stepping up attacks against Shias to lure them into violence and disrupt the elections.
"They are trying to ignite a sectarian civil war and prevent elections from going ahead on time. They have failed before and they will fail again," Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, one of Iraq's most respected Shia clerics, said.
"The Shia are committed not to respond with violence, which will only lead to violence. We are determined on elections and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has made this clear."
Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's most influential cleric and an advocate of non-violence, has been instrumental in preventing Shias from responding to attacks blamed on Saddam Hussein's Sunni minority that have targeted clergy and ordinary people south of Baghdad.
Even the Sadr Movement, led by Moqtada al-Sadr, the young cleric who has challenged the authority of the Iranian-born Ayatollah Sistani, said revenge was not wise.
"A civil war will be hell. The consensus is against revenge," said political liaison officer Mr Ali al-Yassiri.
Mr Haidar al-Ubadi, a senior official in the Shia Dawa Party, said Kerbala and Najaf were targeted because of their symbolism - both hold major shrines to the sect's early martyrs and Najaf is a historic centre of learning - and because the election is expected to go smoothly there.
"The Wahabis are being fed intelligence from the Baathists to carry out this slaughter. We will hand them victory if we respond in kind," Mr Ubadi said, complaining of a lack of security in areas between the holy cities and Baghdad, 100km north.
"We blame the government for being late in securing areas such as Latifiya. But the Shia response will not go beyond organising civil defence corps to help maintain the peace and strengthen the community."
Wahabism tends towards literal interpretations of early Islamic teaching that originated in what is now Saudi Arabia and allied itself with the ruling family.
The Wahabis sacked Kerbala in the 18th century and have had a presence in Iraq since. Saddam's secular forces suppressed them but they emerged after he was toppled and are thought to be among the rebels fighting US-led forces.
Shias blame the Wahabis for killing scores of clerics and ordinary Shias in Dora, a mixed area in Baghdad, and Latifiya, just south of the capital, in recent months. They expect more attacks.
"The Wahabis don't have a base in the south to mount operations against military or government posts, but targets such as markets and shrines remain fairly easy," said Mr Haidar Moussawi, an official in the Iraqi National Congress, a secular party led by Mr Ahmad Chalabi.
"We are lucky because Shia and Sunni leaders agree that violence is against the will of Iraq as a whole."