- BEIRUT -- leading Lebanese
Sunni Moslem cleric said on Friday the slain sons of toppled Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein were "martyrs", while the head of the country's
pro-Iranian Shiites called on the Iraqi people to build a free nation.
-
- Sheikh Maher Hammoud said: "Uday and Qusay died
as martyrs because they were fighting the American invader, which is an
honourable attitude. The Americans covered themselves with shame and humiliation
in assembling a huge force to overcome three men and a teenager."
-
- He added: "This crime has incited deep anger against
the Americans and will push the Iraqi people to intensify their Jihad (holy
war). If the two brothers had committed any crimes, they are as nothing
compared to those perpetrated by the United States in Iraq and elsewhere
in the world."
-
- Meanwhile Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah called on
Iraqis to use "all your strength to build a free nation and establish
security".
-
- "The Iraqi people can do miracles...but they should
confront with great caution the plots of the (US) occupation," Fadlallah
said.
-
- Iraqis "should avoid those plots which the Americans
are using to ignite conflicts between the Iraqi Moslem Sunni and Shiite
sects", he said. "If the occupiers are imposing their plots,
you should unite and confront them."
-
- The United States and Britain were trying to snatch away
the role of the United Nations in Iraq, but "you (Iraqis) are the
people who will decide the fate of the Iraqi people in order for them to
live in peace and freedom".
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- http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1393118,00.html
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