Iraqi official implicates former prime minister, top Sunni sheik in violence in Shiite holy city

[sabra]

Source: IHT/AP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities said Monday a former prime minister and a hardline Sunni sheik — both opponents of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — had been implicated in clashes earlier this year between U.S. and Iraqi troops and a heavily armed cult of messianic Shiites near the holy city of Najaf.

One of the men detained in the fighting said in a videotaped confessions that former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and the head of Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars Harith al-Dhari had contributed financially to the Soldiers of Heaven group.

The footage was broadcast at a news conference by Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the first time such allegations have been raised against Allawi and al-Dhari.

A lawmaker from Allawi's parliamentary bloc, Izzat al-Shabandar, called the accusations "baseless" and said they were politically motivated. Allawi and al-Dhari have repeatedly chastised al-Maliki, who has been leading a shaky, strife-worn Cabinet since May 2006.

"The people who have fabricated such allegations want only to cover up the failure and the corruption al-Maliki's government," al-Shabandar said. "Allawi is a secular politician and in no way would he ally himself with a fundamentalist cult."

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/08/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Najaf-Investigation.php

[Kagemusha]

1. This would be why I don't care for Iraqi investigations & its "justice" system

as if the hanging of Saddam Hussein wasn't a vivid reminder enough.