NAJAF, Iraq, April 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Shiite scholars warned Monday, April 5, U.S. troops of acting “irrationally” after up to 52 Iraqi protesters were killed a day earlier in the worst confrontations between Iraq’s Shiite majority and the U.S.-led occupation troops sine the start of the invasion one year ago.

“We warn the Americans against any irrational action and any attempt to undermine the dignity of the Iraqis and the students of the Hawza (Shiite authority),” said Grand Ayatollah Kazem Al-Husseini Al-Hairi in the statement received by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Al-Hairi, who is the mentor of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, charged that Shiites “have become a target of the occupation forces” and decreed a three-day mourning from Sunday, April 4, when the clashes occurred.

The protesters were peacefully protesting Sunday, April 4, the crushing of two fellowmen by a U.S. tank on Saturday, April 3, the arrest of Sadr’s top assistant Sheikh Mostafa Al-Yaqoubi and a ban on Al-Hawza newspaper, Sadr’s mouthpiece.

The clashes dragged on Monday in Baghdad suburb Sadr city after U.S. overseer in Iraq designated Sadr as an “outlaw”.

Hairi held the U.S. forces “responsible for the security of the people and the bloodshed, and we call on them to release the detainees”.

“From the beginning we were convinced that the occupation forces did not come to Iraq to free the people from oppression. Now we have the proof of this,” said Hairi who is based in the Iranian city of Qom.

“They came to fight this nation, violate its sanctuaries and arrests its ulemas (scholars) and believers ... in the name of freedom of expression and democracy,” it added.

Sheikh Qais Al-Khazali, member of the office of Mohammad Sadiq Sadr, called for opening an independent investigation into the bloody incidents and the release of all Iraqi detainees from U.S. jails, putting the number at 1,000 prisoners.

Sistani Calls For Calm

The spiritual head of Iraq's Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, for his part called on the demonstrators to display restraint and calm, a source close to Sistani said.

"The ayatollah has called on the (Shiite) demonstrators to remain calm, to keep a cool head and allow the problem to be resolved through negotiation," the source said.

"Ali Sistani also called on the demonstrators not to retaliate against the occupation forces in the event of an aggression," he said.

‘Horrible Massacres’

Lebanese Shiite leader Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah also condemned the “horrible massacres” committed by the U.S.-led occupation troops in Iraq.

“These horrible massacres put the spotlight on the big lie of the U.S. administration which says it is acting for the sake of freedoms,” AFP quoted Fadlallah as saying.

He urged all Iraqi parties to work together for “restraint and national unity”.

Aljazeera correspondent compared what he saw in the holy southern city of An-Najaf, where the most blood wad shed, to the 1982 Israeli atrocities in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

He saw dozens lying wounded on the ground, including Shiite scholars, amid the sound of explosions and gunfire on the main highway out of the holy city.

Iran Regrets

Iran said on Monday that it “forcefully regretted” the deaths and injuries of Shiites in Iraq.

“The responsibility for the continued insecurity in Iraq lies with the occupation forces,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state television.

He followed that statement with a demand for the “rapid departure of occupation forces and the return of full power to Iraqis”.

Shiite majority Iran is not considered close to Sadr. It has a strong relationship with his Shiite political rivals in the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim -- a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

Iraqis Fuming

The man on the street said all Iraqis are fuming at the U.S. hollow promises of freedom and prosperity.

The Shiites, who initially welcomed the U.S.-led war to rid them of Saddam, are now turning to violent protests to signal their opposition to the occupation, largely as a result of political frustration and mounting economic hardship, AFP said.

“There is high tension on the streets. Unemployment is very high. Respected personalities are liquidated, even teachers known for their integrity are murdered. Insecurity rules,” said Hassan Al-Ani, a political scientist at Baghdad University.

“It's just the tip of the iceberg. All these unemployed, idle people are easy targets for recruitment by the young, firebrand Shiite leader,” he added.

He pointed to the many demonstrations by the unemployed in Shiite areas over the past three months, in Amara, Basra, and Kut in the south as well in the central holy city of An-Najaf or in Baghdad.

“More than 60 percent of the (Iraqi) population is unemployed in a country where nearly 70 percent of the people are under 20,” Ani said.

In an ominous development that threatens to inflame the situation, Sadr told his supporters Sunday to “terrorize the enemy” as demonstrations were now pointless.

Observing a second day of sit-in at a Kufa mosque, Sadr declared jihad and urged his followers to take up arms against the occupation, the first time by him to opt for armed resistance since the ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on April 9.

Finding his powerbase among the young and unemployed men in Shiite shantytowns, Sadr has established a several-thousand-strong militia, Mahdi Army, in defiance of occupation arms controls imposed last June.