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After a week of violent protests in Iraq, the country's highest-ranking Shiite authority, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has fiercely criticized the Iraqi government for handling the protest during its Friday 11 October preaching.
With our correspondent in Baghdad , Lucile Wassermann
Ayatollah Ali Sistani is giving the Iraqi government two weeks to shed light on the violence that rocked Iraq in early October. As at every event in the country, the weekly preaching of this religious leader is always eagerly awaited and scrutinized by the Iraqis. On Friday, October 4, he had disappointed some of them, not strongly condemning the violence.
This Friday, October 11, he does not hesitate to accuse: " The government and the security forces are responsible for the bloodshed ," he wrote Friday in his speech read by his representatives in Karbala, in the south of the country.
Ali Sistani holds the government responsible for the many victims who fell under the sniper fire. He also condemned the numerous attacks against the Iraqi media, the threats received by the demonstrators and the kidnappings or killings that have taken place on the streets of the Iraqi capital.
A bloody week
This " cycle of violence the government must at all costs break it and faster, " he insists. After a bloody week in which more than 100 people were killed according to official figures, the authorities acknowledged excessive use of force by the army against protesters. They announced that they have launched several investigations into the violence that has erupted across the country.
►Also read: Climate of terror in Baghdad despite stopping violence
Calm has now returned to the streets of Baghdad, more out of fear of reprisals than by satisfaction of the measures announced according to the protesters.