The main causes of terrorism in Iraq and other regional nations are not ignorant or jobless people, but the Global Arrogance, headed by the US and Israeli regime that have extremism under their control and use it in their own favors, Sheikh Khalid al-Mala told al-Alam on Monday.

Mala said, “I remember Israeli regime’s minister of public security who said Israel keeps presence in Iraq and our agents are active in other regional countries”.

Referring to the extremism in Syria, he said, Syrian people are fighting extremist groups as Iraqi civilians did in al-Ramadi, Mosul and Tikrit.

Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the beginning of the year.

A wave of violence began on April 23 when militants invaded security checkpoints near the town of Hawijah in north Iraq, sparking clashes in which 53 people were killed.

Dozens more died in subsequent unrest, including attacks targeting security forces in Kirkuk, Nineveh, Diyala and Anbar provinces, raising fears of a return to the all-out conflict that took the lives of tens of thousands of people from 2006 to 2008.

In April Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki warned of attempts to return Iraq to "sectarian civil war".

Maliki called on everyone worried about Iraq's future "to take the initiative, and not be silent about those who want to take the country back to sectarian civil war."

He recently called for joint Sunni-Shia Friday prayers as a show of unity among Muslims and a move to foil enemy attempts to sow discord in the country.

NTJ/SHI