Saudi Arabia grand mufti condemns jihad in Iraq

Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Asheikh, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, has spoken out against those seeking to break out civil war in neighbouring Iraq.

"Adding to the bloodshed and murder of innocents by planes and bombs are attempts by suspicious parties to trigger sectarian tension between the people of Iraq,” said Al-Asheikh who was quoted by the Arab News daily.

These jihadists were trying to stoke intra-religious clashes “to serve the aims of the enemies conspiring against Muslims,” al-Asheikh argued.

In the meanwhile Al-Qaeda's number one in Iraq, the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared an all-out war against Shiites in an audio recording posted to the Internet last week.

Besides al-Asheikh, Iraq’s main Sunni Arab religious authority, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, has also condemned al-Zarqawi’s declaration.

The highest number of foreign insurgents fighting in Iraq are now Algerians (20 percent) followed by Syrians (18 percent), Yemenis (17 percent), Sudanese (15 percent), and Egyptians (13 percent), the AKI reports.

Photo: the AP