Cleric Urges Prosecuting Those behind Attack on Ayatollah Sistani’s Office in Damascus
Ayatollah Sistani, the supreme religious authority, is an important religious figure for Shias and other Muslims, Sadreddin Qabanchi said in his Friday prayer sermon.
“The attack on Ayatollah Sistani’s office in Damascus is an attack on one of our major characters and we cannot tolerate it,” he stated.
“We are waiting for the perpetrators to be punished and held accountable, as an apology is not enough.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Qabanchi thanked Iraqi security forces after the arrest of a group of Baath party members who were meeting in Sulaymaniyah, including former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law who managed to escape.
He said this is a big step by the security forces, because they were able to get to the time and place of the meeting and attack them.
Earlier this week, an armed group that had raided an office of Iraqi top Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Damascus apologized for the attack.
The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights on Wednesday said that the office, located in the Sayyidah Zaynab District south of Damascus had been attacked a day earlier.
It said an extremist armed group led by a man named Abu Omar al-Libi attacked the office and looted its contents.
The office was vandalized and ransacked, with doors and internal columns damaged. Sums of money and a computer were stolen, and a picture of Ayatollah Sistani was defaced, it said.
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Sources say that this office operates solely in the humanitarian and social fields, particularly caring for orphans and assisting displaced Shias, and has no connection to military or political activities.
They noted that that mediation and contacts subsequently led to the return of stolen funds and equipment, with the armed group issuing a formal apology.
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