Two aides to Iraq's top Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have been killed in separate attacks apparently aimed at inflaming sectarian conflict ahead of January 30th elections.
A Sistani representative said today that cleric Mahmoud al-Madaen was killed along with his son and four bodyguards. Madaen, Sistani's representative in the ancient town of Salman Pak south of Baghdad, was killed on Wednesday.
Another aide, a cleric working in Sistani's office in Najaf, was also found dead yesterday. He was not named.
Iraqi officials say a series of attacks on Shia targets in Iraq show that Sunni Muslim insurgents are mounting a campaign to inflame sectarian distrust, which has already been stoked by divisions over the elections.
Iraq's 60 per cent Shia majority, oppressed for decades under Saddam Hussein, strongly supports the elections. A list of mainly Shia candidates drawn up with Sistani's approval is expected to dominate the polls.
But a raging insurgency in Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland means many there are too afraid to vote and election preparations are far behind schedule.
Several leading Sunni parties say they are boycotting the vote because the results will be unfairly skewed against the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam.
Sunni leaders say that if many Sunnis regard the elections as unfair, this will spark more bloodshed and even civil war.
The reclusive Sistani, Iraq's most widely revered religious leader, commands enormous influence in the country. Sistani has appealed for restraint from Shias, saying acts of revenge would destroy the country.