Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Saturday condemned attacks on Sunni mosques in the southern city of Basra and called for a halt to such violence. The attacks have been apparent reprisals against Sunnis after militants blew up the minarets of a revered Shia mosque in Samarra on Wednesday.
"He heavily condemns the attacks against the mosques of Talha ben Obaida Alla and al-Eshra al Mubashera in Basra," Sistani's spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, told Reuters. "He calls on believers to prevent, as much as they can, such attacks from taking place on mosques and shrines."