Muqtada al-Sadr calls for three days of mourning

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a three-day mourning period to mark the destruction Wednesday of the minarets of the Shi'ite Askariya shrine in Samarra. In a statement issued in the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, al-Sadr also called for peaceful demonstrations following the blasts, a repeat of a February 2006 bombing that destroyed the shrine's golden dome. Both attacks were blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida. "We declare a three-day mourning period...and shout Allahu Akbar (God is greater) from Sunni and Shi'ite mosques," said al-sadr, who lives in Najaf.