Clerics blame strife in Iraq on U.S. mistakes

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Shiite and Sunni clerics, among the last vestige of authority in a country rapidly losing faith in politicians, charged Saturday that Iraq’s plight was the result of U.S. mistakes and pleaded with their faithful to stem the bloodshed that followed a devastating attack on a mainly Shiite Baghdad slum.

In interviews Saturday and recent sermons, clerics articulated one message that appears to be gaining traction on both sides of Iraq’s civil war: The U.S. presence is making matters worse, and the Americans should go home.

“The roots of our problems lie in the mistakes of the Americans committed right from the beginning of their occupation,” said Sheikh Ali Mirza Asada, a Shiite cleric in Najaf who is a leader of Iraq’s Dawa Party.

Iraq’s most prominent Sunni cleric agreed.

In a Cairo, Egypt, news conference, Sheikh Harith Dhari, demanded that American troops withdraw.

“Since the beginning, the U.S. occupation drove Iraq from bad to worse,” said Dhari, who recently was named a fugitive from justice by Iraq’s Shiite-led government for allegedly supporting terrorism.

The increased focus by the clerics on the U.S. presence in Iraq comes as U.S. officials review a broad range of options to address the increasing violence there and dwindling domestic support for the war. Options range from a short-term increase in the 144,000 troops to a phased withdrawal.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney made a quick visit Saturday to Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s neighbor and a regional power. Saudi Arabia also is a source of funds for Sunni Arab insurgents and fighters in Iraq. President Bush is scheduled to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Jordan next week.

The clerics appealed for an end to retaliatory killings and kidnappings in the wake of a series of bombings in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday that killed more than 200 people.

Sheik Khalil Maliki, another Shiite cleric based in the southern port city of Basra, also blamed the United States. “We have all concluded that the primary party responsible for all these massacres is the American occupation,” said Maliki, a representative of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr, whose representatives are a key element in al-Maliki’s Shiite coalition, threatened Friday to stage a walkout and bring down the government if al-Maliki went ahead with his meeting with Bush. U.S. and Iraqi officials said Saturday that there were no plans to cancel the meeting.