BREAKING NEWS

Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric condemns Saudi execution as 'unjust aggression'

BAGHDAD - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Sunday condemned the execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia, calling it an "unjust aggression".
"We have received with much sorrow and regret the news of the martyrdom of a number of our brother believers in the region whose pure blood was shed in an unjust aggression," the cleric, said in a letter addressed to the population of the eastern Saudi region of Qatif where Nimr used to preach.
The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shi'ites in Iraq and elsewhere.