From the LA Times:
BAGHDAD, Iraq “” Shiite Muslim religious leaders ratcheted up their rhetoric against the United States during Friday prayers amid ongoing sectarian violence and faltering talks over the creation of a new Iraqi government…
One leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Yacoubi, called on Washington to remove Khalilzad, who is perceived by some Shiites as biased in favor of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secular Iraqis.
Khalilzad, speaking to a group of Iraqi women Friday inside the tightly secured Green Zone, took his own swipe at Iraqi politicians. “Iraq is bleeding while they are moving at a very slow pace,” he said, according to a transcript provided by the U.S. Embassy.
Shiite religious leaders throughout the country also condemned a U.S.-Iraqi raid Sunday on a Shiite religious complex in northern Baghdad that left at least 16 dead.
“This grisly crime was committed by the occupier and its mercenaries,” prayer leader Mohammad Tabatabai told worshippers in the impoverished Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. “America is taking on the role of Pharaoh to the world. America came to kill the believers.”…
Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, once viewed as the primary perpetrators of ethnic violence, have increasingly become victims as shadowy groups with possible ties to official security organs have launched a campaign of abduction and murder. Authorities discovered at least five corpses Friday, some with handcuffs and signs of torture in what has become the signature of the death squads operating in religiously mixed provinces of central Iraq…