Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News Staff

BAGHDAD, 6 February 2004 — Violence continued unabated in Iraq yesterday on the eve of a visit by a UN team to negotiate an election date. Top Iraqi Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, escaped an assassination attempt and a US soldier was killed in an attack on a convoy.

“Sayyed Sistani escaped an assassination attempt,” an aide said in the southern city of Najaf without elaborating. “I just met Sayyed Sistani, he is safe and sound,” said a Shiite member of the Iraq’s US-appointed interim leadership, Muaffak Al-Rubei, after a meeting with the cleric.

“At 10 o’clock this morning, gunmen opened fire on Ayatollah Sistani as he greeted people in Najaf, but he was not hurt,” he said.

“He is surrounded by his relatives who are taking care of him. What I call for now is for there to be no backlash after this assassination attempt. Instead there should be a national response encompassing all of Iraq. These violent acts against any of our leaders should be condemned,” Rubei added.

In recent weeks, Sistani has spoken out against US proposals for transferring power back to an Iraqi government by July 1, saying he wants direct elections to be held rather than a US plan for a system of indirect regional caucuses.

Sistani’s pronouncements carry enormous weight in Iraq and his opposition to the US power transfer plans has thrown into question whether sovereignty will be returned by the deadline.

The attempt on the veteran cleric’s life is likely to spur anger amongst Iraq’s Shiite community, which was suppressed for more than two decades during Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Rubei said he doubted sectarian strife would break out because of “Iraqi awareness of the need to preserve the unity of the country.”

The attack came just a day before a team of UN experts was expected in Baghdad to assess the feasibility of Sistani’s demand for elections to Iraq’s first post-occupation government, which is due to be installed by the end of June.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ordered the mission at the request of the US-led coalition after it failed to broker a compromise deal to maintain its tight timetable for the handover of power.

Meanwhile, the US Command said guerrillas fired a mortar at a checkpoint near Baghdad International Airport, killing one US soldier and wounding another. The attack occurred about 2:15 p.m. outside the airport, which serves as a major American military base. No further details were released.