Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric on Saturday warned the prime minister to quell violence or risk «other powers» filling the gap, while police found the tortured and blindfolded bodies of 13 Pakistani and Indian pilgrims and their Iraqi driver, according to The Assocaited Press. At least 15 violent deaths were reported elsewhere in Iraq, while the government announced it had formally taken over the notorious Abu Ghraib prison from coalition authorities. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, the cleric's office said. In July, al-Sistani was credited with restraining the Shiite community from widespread retaliation against minority Sunnis following horrific attacks on Shiite civilians. «If the government does not do its duty in imposing security and order to the people and protecting them, it will give a chance to other powers to do this duty and this a very dangerous matter,» al-Sistani's office quoted him as saying. The meeting came two days after a barrage of coordinated attacks across mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad killed 64 people and wounded 286. The prime minister's office said in a statement that 17 suspects had been arrested after the bombings, but gave no further details.
