12 Killed in Market Blast; Rafsanjani visits Sistani

12 Killed in Market Blast; Rafsanjani visits Sistani

A car bomb at a livestock market in Babi province near the city of Hilla . The blast left 12 dead. Babil is majority Shiite but has a Sunni minority.

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani met Thursday in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Sistani is said to have expressed concern about violence by extremists from both the Sunni and the Shiite side. Sistani declined Rafsanjani's invitation to visit Iran. it is rumored that Sistani does not approve of Khomeinism or the doctrine that the clerics Should rule. Rajfsanjani has met with Iraq's president and prime minister on this trip.

posted by Juan Cole @ 3/06/2009 12:25:00 AM