Gunmen shot dead three Sunni clerics in the Shia-majority southern province of Basra, Iraqi officials said on Friday, an attack likely to increase already-significant sectarian tensions in the country. Raikan Mahdi, the head of the security committee for Al-Zubair district in Basra province, said "unknown gunmen" killed the clerics and wounded two more.
Mahdi said the attack took place as the clerics headed from provincial capital Basra to Al-Zubair on Thursday night, after attending a meeting on preparations to celebrate the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. It is still unclear who carried out the killings, which come at a time of heightened tensions between Iraq's Shia Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority who mark the prophet's birthday on Saturday. Sunni jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group spearheaded a sweeping offensive that overran major parts of Iraq and have repeatedly attacked Shias, whom the consider to be apostates.