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Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

CAIRO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League (AL) on Saturday welcomed the Mecca agreement reached by major Iraqi factions, in which Muslim Shiite and Sunni groups called for a stop to bloodshed and an end to sectarian violence, the League said in a press statement.

AL Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Ahmed Bin Helli said the agreement is the most worthy result of ongoing Arab and regional efforts to help Iraq overcome its current crisis.

Concerted efforts and coordination are needed in Iraq's case, Helli said, voicing hope that the series of edicts issued by the Iraqi religious leadership in Mecca Friday will find resonance among the country's Sunni and Shiite militants.

Iraq's Shiite and Sunni groups reached the agreement in a signed document, or final communique under which "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden", at the end of their two-day Mecca meeting organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

According to media reports, the 10-point document, drafted by a group of four clerics from two communities under OIC auspices, calls for safeguarding of the two communities' holy places, defending the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and the release of "all innocent detainees."

In details, the majority of the 10-point document edicts forbidding kidnappings, incitement of hatred, attacks on mosques and Shiite places of worship.

The gathering was seen as part of the Iraqi Reconciliation Conference. Since the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, some 120 km north of Baghdad, Iraq has been engulfed in tit-for-tat Shiite-Sunni violence that has reportedly killed thousands.

RIYADH, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Shiite and Sunni clerics on Friday met in Saudi Arabia's Mecca and agreed to halt the growing sectarian bloodletting in their war-torn country, said reports reaching here from the Islam's holiest city.

The two rival sides reached the agreement in a signed document, or final communique under which "spilling Muslim blood is forbidden", at the end of their two-day Mecca meeting organized by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).Full story>>