KATARINA KRATOVAC, BAGHDAD
TWO aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani were gunned down in southern Iraq, prompting Basra followers of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric to boycott yeterday's sermons and call for better protection for the country's religious leaders.
The deaths brought to at least five the number of al Sistani aides slain since early August, raising fears about the security surrounding al Sistani as Shi'ite militias wage an increasingly violent struggle for power in Iraq's oil rich south.
The attacks against al Sistani's representatives late on Thursday drew protests from the cleric's followers and calls for stepped up protection of the religious hierarchy.
The reclusive spiritual leader has been the target of at least one assassination attempt since 2003.
Born in Iran, al Sistani, who is in his 70s, commands the deep respect of Iraq's majority Shi'ites and millions could riot, fuelling sectarian tension, if he comes to harm.
"Security officials should put an end to the wave of assassinations. Such killings might target prominent figures whose absence if killed might affect the political process," another al Sistani aide, Ahmed al Safi, said in his sermon yesterday in Karbala.
The US embassy, meanwhile, resumed limited convoy movements with Blackwater USA protection in Baghdad. The lifting of the ban on all land travel by US diplomats and other civilian officials came despite continued public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the American security firm.
US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the decision to resume land travel outside the heavily fortified Green Zone was made after consultations with the Iraqi government and the convoys will be limited to essential missions.
A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki conceded it may prove difficult for the Iraqi government to follow through on threats to expel Blackwater and other Western security contractors.
The aide said a way out of the Blackwater crisis could be the payment of compensation to victims' families and an agreement from all sides on a new set of ground rules for their operations in Iraq.
In Baghdad, the US military said yesterday that one American soldier was killed and another was wounded in an explosion the day before near their vehicle in the volatile Diyala province north-east of the Iraqi capital.
In Afghanistan, heavy battles punctuated by a barrage of airstrikes killed 75 suspected Taliban and at least six civilians in the south of the country, while a suicide car bomb in the capital killed two people, including a French soldier, officials said.
The bomb attack in western Kabul was directed against a convoy of French troops traveling in armoured vehicles.
Two British soldiers killed in a road accident in Afghanistan were named yesterday by the Ministry of Defence as Colour Sergeant Phillip Newman of 4th Battalion The Mercian Regiment, and Private Brian Tunnicliffe of 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).
The soldiers died when their vehicle came off the road in Gereshk, Helmand province, at around 3am on Thursday.-AP
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