Shiite Leader Warns Against Iraq Violence

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite political group warned on Saturday against sectarian strife and called on the Iraqi government to exert more efforts in their fight with militants.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, made the call a day after gunmen killed a prominent Shiite cleric.

"We stress the importance of being alert and cautious not to be carried away toward the sectarian strife that our enemies want for us," al-Hakim, a National Assembly member, said in a statement. "We ask the Iraqi government, particularly the security apparatuses, to exert more efforts to strike these terrorist groups."

On Friday, attackers killed Kamal Ezz al-Deen al-Ghuraifi, an aide to Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Also Friday, masked gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque in Baghdad and kidnapped a Muslim preacher, Sheik Amer al-Tikriti.

The militant group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for al-Ghuraifi's murder in an Internet statement. The statement's authenticity couldn't be verified."
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