Shiites renounce violent Iraq reprisals

BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Iraq's Shiite majority is showing patience for now by refusing to rise to the bait of recent Sunni Arab terror attacks, analysts say.

Fearing igniting a sectarian war now that they hold political power in the Iraq for the first time in 1,000 years, Shiite leaders are counseling patience and forbearance in the face of continuing attacks on holy shrines and civilian populations, The New York Times said Wednesday.

Credit is being given to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for taming once-violent Shiite militiamen, while the Shiites' spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has forbidden any sort of violent reprisals for attacks on Shiite refugees waiting for food rations, children gathering for handouts of candy and other provocations, the newspaper said.

"I wouldn't look for this to become a repeat of 2006," said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill, referring to the year when a Sunni attack on the sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra ignited two years of sectarian warfare."It's very different."

There no longer are tit-for-tat bombings of Sunni mosques after Shiite mosques are attacked, the Times said.