BAGHDAD, May 28, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The influential Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) has nothing to do with the recent string of attacks on and assassinations of Sunni imams and worshipers, a SCIRI official said on Saturday, May 28.

"The SCIRI and Al-Dawa Party [the main Shiite political bodies in Iraq], are guided by religious authorities, which prohibit the killing of fellow Muslims," Ali Kazem Al-Adad, a member of SCIRI’S Central Committee, told IslamOnline.net.

He said attacks targeting Sunni and Shiites scholars and mosques are perpetrated by "individuals" either Sunnis or Shiites and "should not tar the entire Shiite or Sunni communities".

Adad was responding to charges by the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) that SCIRI’s military arm, the Badr Brigades, was behind anti-Sunni attacks over the past weeks.

The Shiite official condemned the AMS for publicly pointing the finger at SCIRI on satellite TV stations, asking the influential Sunni body for hard evidence on the “baseless” accusations.

Adad also said he had no idea about the so-called Wolf Brigade, an interior ministry’s division mostly made up of the Badr Brigades and accused of launching a series of swoops on Sunni mosques and mass arrests of imams and worshipers.

The SCIRI and Al-Dawa Party are the main players in the Shiite coalition that won the parliamentary elections and has the lion's share in the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, the leader of the Al-Dawa Party.

Sadr’s delegation met AMS leaders to negotiate an end to the standoff. (Reuters)

The SCIRI official also called on the “seasoned scholars and politicians” from both sides to try their best to break the current standoff, which has prompted fears of civil war in the country.

He said top Shiite religious authority in Iraq Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani has called for a conference of all Iraqi powers to preserve the country’s unity and heal a yawning rift created by the deteriorating security conditions.

Adad cited a meeting last week between Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh and Sunni leaders, including senior AMS leader Ahmad Abdul Ghafour Al-Samarrai and head of the Sunni Waqfs Adnan Al-Deleimi, to dispel the tensions.

Anti-occupation Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr is also mediating between AMS and SCIRI.

The AMS welcomed Sadr’s overture, handing his visiting representatives a code of honor exhorting the Iraqi people to settle their differences for the common good.

Sadr's move came days after Sunni leaders held their second biggest gathering, which resulted in the formation of an alliance of religious, political and social groups to streamline their political participation and unify the ranks of all Sunnis, whether Arabs, Turkomans or Kurds.

The congress further demanded the government set up an independent judicial committee to investigate the killing and torture of Sunni detainees.