BAGHDAD, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Friday urged the government to prevent the Shiite militant attacks and condemned bombings claimed by Islamic State and retaliatory assaults this week on Sunni mosques in the province of Diyala Reuters reported .
Sistani has millions of followers in Iraq and elsewhere and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge.
“We place full responsibility on the government security forces for (the attacks’) repetition and to not permit the presence of militants outside the framework of the state,” his spokesman, Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala’i, said in a sermon broadcast on state television.
At least seven Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in the town of Muqdadiya were firebombed on Tuesday.
Shiite militants have remained active in Diyala and militia elements have been accused of abuses against Sunni residents.