Leading Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani last week issued a fatwa forbidding attacks against the Police and Army personnel. Later the same day, the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars issued another fatwa calling for the Sunnis to join the Police and the Army. Shiite sources expect both fatwas to help the new government build the Police and the Army, on the strength of this new-found consensus on security between the main Iraqi communities (i.e. the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds). According to these sources, the Shiites and Kurds already agree on the need to confront “terrorism” and stamp it out by the end of the year, before the new general election takes place.
Iraq Information Report - April 6, 2005 - 6 th Year, № 6/636
