NCRI – A prominent Iraqi religious leader has called for prime minister Nouri a-Maliki to quit over the massacre of 38 anti-government protesters in northern Iraq this week.
Iraq’s security forces carried out the atrocity during a raid on the protesters camp in the city of al-Hawijah on Tuesday.
Dr Abdulmalek al-Saadi made the demand in a series of statements to the Iraqi people this week.
He said: “The solution to this problem is to change the executive director and his minister with an honorable and patriotic Iraqi so that Iraq can gain stability.
“I am addressing the Iraqi Army that committed this bloody and vicious massacre in al-Hawijah. I tell officers, commanders and soldiers of the army, you have made God angry and have pleased your commander Maliki and his followers.
“We will expose the criminals among you in the cities of Faloujeh, Diyala, Mousel, Kirkuk and al-Hawijah. They will be punished fairly by the Iraqi people and they have no way out.
“I call on the men, youth, clerics, tribal leaders and education workers that are on strike to exercise restraint until the armed forces begin acting peacefully.
“Defending oneself is a duty, and anyone that dies in this situation is considered a martyr. Defend yourselves with courage.”
He also told army chiefs: “Put your arms on the ground and join the honorable ones in the protest. Just like your honorable brothers did in the Syrian army.
“I call on the Shiite religious authorities in cities Najaf Ashraf and Karballa and other provinces across Iraq to protest against this oppression because it is your brothers and children – despite their religious differences, getting killed in the fields of protest.
“I call on the Arab tribes in the country’s south to prohibit your military children from obeying the orders of the government or its commanders to kill the Iraqi people from any religion or culture.”
