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UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council condemned today "terrorist attacks" in Iraq and called for a halt to the "transit of terrorists" in and out of Iraq and the supply of arms and money to these groups.
An insurgency by minority Sunnis erupted in Iraq soon after the US-led invasion in 2003 ousted Saddam Hussein and allowed majority Shi'ites to assume power for the first time in Iraq.
But the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a year ago -- that Iraqi officials blamed on Sunni al Qaeda -- unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
"The members of the Security Council are following with concern the situation in Iraq and condemn all terrorist attacks," the council said in a statement read by Slovakian Ambassador Peter Burian, the body's president for February, adding that the council urged an end to violence in Iraq.
"The members of the council reiterate the council call upon member states to prevent the transit of terrorists to and from Iraq, arms for terrorists, and financing that would support terrorists," Burian said.
US officials and Sunni Arab leaders say many of the killings are carried out by death squads of the Mehdi Army militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, although the anti-American Shi'ite cleric says he rejects violence against all Iraqis.
The US military says Sadr has fled to Iran, although the cleric's aides insist he is still in Iraq and lying low in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. Washington has described Sadr's militia as the greatest threat to Iraqi security.
The United States also accuses Iran of fanning violence in Iraq and has presented evidence of what officials say were Iranian-made weapons being smuggled into Iraq. It also accuses Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq.
- REUTERS
