Gunmen attack residence of Sistani's representative

Unknown assailants raided the home of a representative of Iraq's most revered Shiite Cleric and top religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini al-Sistani, in the country's Southwestern province of Babil Tuesday night and killed his wife and son.According to FNA dispatches, the terrorists started the attack before midnight and destroyed the house. The report said that Ayatollah Sistani's representative has escaped the assassination attempt. The last night attack was the latest in a series of assassination attempts on Ayatollah Sistani's representatives in Iraq in recent weeks. Earlier, another representative of the Grand Ayatollah, namely Sheikh Karim al-Khalidi, was shot and seriously wounded in the center of Al-Qassim, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) South of the Iraqi capital. Also on October 12, unknown armed men driving a car shot dead Sheikh Mohannad al-Maamar, along with his escort near his house in one of Karbala's southern neighborhoods.