Reports of Ayat Sistani attack denied

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF NAJAF, Iraq: A United Nations team was due to land in Iraq to review demands for quick elections, as officials of Governing Council and aides to Ayatullah Ali As-Sistani cast doubt on reports he had been the target of an assassination bid.

Television reports Thursday had said gunmen sprayed Ayatullah As-Sistani's car with bullets as he left his office for home in the holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

But US-installed Governing Council’s member Muwaffak Ar-Rubaie refused to confirm or deny reports that Ayatullah Sistani was the target of an attack, despite being the first to announce that one had taken place Thursday. He said Sistani wanted to put the event behind him.

“All these incidents are meant to destabilize the political process, to derail it. They are against democracy in Iraq. It's the same as the Arbil incident and the Hakim incident -- they are exactly the same,” Rubaie said.

Several other members of the Council cast doubt on reports of gunmen, pointing out that both buildings are in the same complex.

And a spokesman for the Ayatullah said Friday a man had been arrested as he tried to break into Sistani's office to carry out an unspecified “criminal act”. Sheikh Abdul Mahdi Al-Karbalai told Lebanon's Al-Manar television that “arresting someone does not mean that there was an assassination attempt.”

In Baghdad, Iraqis on Friday demonstrated while shouting anti-American slogans to demand the release of all Iraqi women detained by US-led coalition forces.

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