April 13
— KUWAIT (Reuters) - Armed radical groups have surrounded the
house of Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the central city of
Najaf, giving him 48 hours to leave the country, a top aide to the
cleric said on Sunday.
"Armed thugs and hooligans have had the house of (Grand)
Ayatollah (Ali) Sistani under siege since yesterday. They have told
him to either leave Iraq in 48 hours or they would attack,"
Kuwait-based Ayatollah Abulqasim Dibaji told Reuters.
"Total terror reigns in Najaf. They have told other ayatollahs to
leave too," Dibaji said.
"This is the biggest catastrophe for Najaf," he said. The city of
Najaf is a holy Shi'ite city in central Iraq where Sistani and many
other spiritual leaders live."
Dibaji said the house was surrounded by members of
Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani, a splinter group led by Moqtada Sadr, the
22-year-old son of a late spiritual leader in Iraq.
Copyright 2003 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This
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redistributed. | 
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