Top cleric backs Iraqi candidates with religious intent

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The revered Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani weighed into Iraq's election campaign Saturday with an instruction to his followers on how to vote that amounted to an endorsement of the ruling pro-Iranian Shiite coalition.

In what his aides described as an oral statement issued through his Office of Fatwa, or religious instruction, in the holy city of Najaf, al-Sistani said Shiites are obligated to vote in the Dec. 15 election. He also specified that they should favor lists of candidates who are religiously inclined and that they should not vote for "weak" ones.

The only group that fits that description is the United Iraqi Alliance, the heavyweight Shiite coalition of major religious parties that won the most votes in the last election and now dominates the government.

As the spiritual leader of most of the country's 16 million Shiites, al-Sistani's word is law as far as many devout Shiites are concerned, and his endorsement of the United Iraqi Alliance during January's election was considered crucial to the group's strong showing.

The alliance includes the two most powerful Shiite parties: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which was formed in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's rule; and the Dawa Party of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. It also contains representatives of the one-time rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, as well as a number of smaller Shiite religious factions.

Although there are 437 parties and coalitions competing for seats in Iraq's National Assembly and the chance to form the government, the vast majority of them are small and virtually unknown.

Al-Sistani's official spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, said the oral instruction did not carry the clout of a written fatwa. It is intended only as "a guideline to people" and not an official statement.

Nonetheless, the message likely will be interpreted by United Iraqi Alliance supporters as al-Sistani's tacit backing, and it could help sway the election's outcome.

The reclusive cleric, who speaks only through his aides and rarely is seen in public, had indicated earlier that he would not back any political group, lending hope to politicians outside the coalition that they might be able to lure Shiite voters who otherwise would obey their religious authorities.

Foremost among those is Ayad Allawi, the Shiite former interim prime minister who has rebounded from his electoral defeat in January to launch a staunchly secularist campaign challenging the sectarian and ethnic identities that have shaped Iraq's political landscape over the past year.

Allawi has assembled a broad slate of candidates that includes Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But to improve significantly on the 13 percent support he won in the last election he will have to persuade some of the Shiites who voted overwhelmingly for the United Iraqi Alliance in January to switch.

Ismael Zayer, a newspaper editor and adviser to Allawi's campaign, predicted that al-Sistani's instruction would intensify the already fierce rivalries building in the Shiite south ahead of the election.

"This could cause big trouble," he said. "We will have people saying he means one thing and people saying he means another, and it could deepen the pressure on Allawi's campaign."

The fiercely fought campaign already is turning violent. In the southern city of Basra on Saturday, an Allawi campaign worker was killed as he was attempting to hang campaign posters on a wall, two days after a candidate with Allawi's Iraqi National List coalition was slain in nearby Amara.

In other violence Saturday, 19 Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded in what appeared to be a well-planned ambush of their convoy by a large group of insurgents in the town of Adhaim, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The U.S. command has released few details about the Thursday bombing that killed 10 members of the Marines' Regimental Combat Team 8.

A witness said it occurred at a mill in the village of Amiriyat al Fallujah, just outside the city.

Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape Saturday from the Islamic Army of Iraq showing an explosion targeting a U.S. foot patrol near Fallujah. The tape did not directly link the explosion to Thursday's attack, but the Al-Jazeera announcer noted the Marine deaths as the tape aired.

Chicago Tribune reporter Hassan Jarrah contributed to this article, which was supplemented by The Associated Press.