BAGHDAD, November 25 (IslamOnline.net) - Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr has reportedly called for boycotting general elections, due on January 30, protesting continued US occupation of his country.

Taking part in the coming elections is “not permissible as long as the foreign occupiers remain in Iraq,” IslamOnline.net correspondent quoted Sadr as answering a question by one of his followers a few days ago.

“Muslims will not have an independent will voting in these elections which will only serve the interests of the foreign occupiers,” said the firebrand young leader.

While his loyalists consider his remarks a binding fatwa, several Shiite figures said only represent a political position and carry no religious significance to other Shiites.

“Sadr’s statements could by no means be considered a fatwa but they are rather a political viewpoint,” Sheikh Mohsen Al-Waeli told IslamOnline.net.

Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani and other prominent Shiite leaders have encouraged Iraqis to cast their ballots in the January elections.

Aide to Sadr said the boycott calls came in protest at the massive offensive launched by the US and Iraqi forces against the western Baghdad city of Fallujah.

“Sadr group will withhold support for and participation in the elections to protest the occupation and the crimes perpetrated by the American forces against our people in Fallujah,” Hashim Al-Musawi said.

The successive air strikes have caused huge damage in the western Baghdad city, with dead bodies littering the streets.

Aws Al-Khafaji, the head of the Sadr office in Karbala, said last week that Sadr group saw elections as “an American ploy meant for the occupation forces to stay in Iraq.”

He said free and fair elections are impossible under the US occupation and that the vote should be organized after the withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces.

The boycott calls run counter to Sadr’s earlier position that his group would run for the elections via a unified slate grouping Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, Turkomans and Christians.

His aides had even embarked on marathon contacts with Sunni powers in northern and western Iraq to set up a political coalition which Sadr intended to call the “Liberation Front,” peacefully struggling for an end of the occupation.

Sadr’s top aide, Ali Smesim, accused Wednesday, November 24, the interim government of violating their peace deal by continuing to arrest senior Sadr associates.

He told a news conference that two powerful Shiite political parties, the Dawa Islamic Party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were pushing for the detentions.

“There is a conspiracy against the Sadr people,” Smesim said, naming that two groups as collaborators.

Members of both parties hold prominent positions in the interim government and were favored by the Americans before and after the invasion, according to Reuters.

Smesim's remarks came after Iraqi police officers detained a senior Sadr official, Sheik Hashem Abu Reghif, in the holy city of Najaf last Friday.

Sistani is reportedly trying to bring all Shiite political groups together to present a unified slate of candidates for the national elections.

His plan does not only include the Dawa and Supreme Council but also Sadr, Reuters said.