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| Iraq | |
| Iraq: Shiite cleric wounded in ambush | |
| 2008-08-25 | |
| Gunmen seriously wounded a Shiite cleric and an outspoken critic of sectarian militias in an ambush on a van carrying his wife, mother and sister, police and hospital officials said Sunday. The cleric, Haider al-Saymari, was attacked Saturday in the southern city of Basra. His relatives were not harmed, said police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. Al-Saymari, 38, is a follower of Iraq's top Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a moderate. Al-Saymari is known as a critic of extremists and armed groups in Basra, particularly the Mahdi Army militia of al-Sistani's rival, radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Saymari had lived and worked in the holy Iranian city of Qom since 1991, but returned to his native Iraq to take part in a Shiite religious ceremony earlier this month. He was heading back to Iran Saturday, passing through downtown Basra, when gunmen firing from a car ambushed his van. Al-Saymari was rushed to a nearby hospital. Iraqi police officials initially said he was pronounced dead but other police and hospital officials contacted later said he was seriously wounded.
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| Posted by:Fred |