Iraqi cleric calls on public to fight ISIL terrorists

A senior Iraqi cleric has called on people to take up arms and defend their country against Takfiri militants belonging to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai made the comments during a Friday prayers sermon in the holy city of Karbala.

Al-Karbalai is a representative of top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

According to Sheikh Karbalai, Iraq’s religious establishment wants people to defend their country against the militants.

Earlier this week, Ayatollah Sistani called on all Iraqi people and political factions to unite and support the government and army in their battle against the terrorists.

This comes as militants have already captured two provincial capitals this week, Tikrit in Salahuddin Province and Mosul in Nineveh.

Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including the capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi men from all walks of life are flocking to recruitment centers to join the army in its fight against the ISIL militants.

The United Nations Security Council has recently condemned the attacks on Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul by Takfiri militants and the abduction of Turkish consulate staff members.

This is while the Russian Foreign Ministry says Takfiri terrorists seek to “entrench” themselves in the entire Middle East by perpetrating acts of violence in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, described the current situation in Iraq as “extremely sharp and tense” and censured the plots by the terrorists to “get entrenched” in Iraq, Syria and the whole region.