Ahlul Bayt News Agency - The execution in Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric 'Sheikh al-Nimr' on Saturday sparked outrage in Iraq, where some leaders called for the closure of Riyadh's newly reopened embassy in Baghdad.
Iraq Popular Mobilization Forces has condemned Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and called on Baghdad to reconsider the re-opening of the Saudi embassy.
In a statement aired on its TV network, Asaib Ahl al-Haq called the execution, which was announced Saturday, a "new crime" carried out by the Saudi royal family.
It called on the Iraqi government to "reconsider the benefit of having a Saudi embassy in Iraq, with a suspicious ambassador and goals."
Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a top leader in the powerful Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization forces, one of the most powerful Shiite fighters in Iraq) paramilitary condemned Nimr's execution.
"Even as the rulers of Saudi Arabia are supporting terror in the entire world by sending takfiris, weapons and car bombs to Muslim countries, today they executed the most honest man in Saudi Arabia," he said in a statement.
Khalaf Abdelsamad, who heads the parliamentary bloc of Iraq's Shiite Dawa party -- to which both Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki belong -- said Baghdad should take action.
"Abdelsamad urges the Iraqi government to close down the Saudi embassy, expel the ambassador and execute all Saudi terrorists in Iraqi prisons," a statement from his office said.
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