Clerics in the Pakistani city of Karachi have taken to the streets to condemn the atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
“These Takfiris are funded and trained by the US,” said a Pakistani cleric during the protest on Sunday.
“We hold the US and its allies in the region responsible for the bloodshed in Syria and now in Iraq,” another cleric said.
On June 10, the ISIL militants took control of the Nineveh provincial capital Mosul, in a lightning advance, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including Baghdad.
However, their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces and volunteer fighters have begun engaging them on different fronts, pushing the militants out of several areas they had earlier overrun.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has lashed out at Saudi Arabia for supporting the ISIL terrorists.
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