Iraqi gunmen wound top Shiite cleric's aide

Gunmen wounded a representative of Iraq's top Shiite cleric as he was returning home from prayer in al-Qassim, south of Baghdad, officials said on Thursday. Sheikh Karim al-Khalidi, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, was shot and seriously wounded in the centre of the town, which lies some 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the Iraqi capital, on Wednesday evening. Sistani is Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric whose stature dwarfs that of any Shiite politician, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "Unknown gunmen attacked Sheikh Karim al-Khalidi in al-Qassim," said an official in Sistani's office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf in south Iraq. The attack was the first assassination attempt on Khalidi, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A medical official in Hilla, capital of Babil province of which al-Qassim is part, said Khalidi was "in serious condition, he is still in the hospital as he was shot in the chest."