Hundreds of Shia Iranians held a rally in the capital, Tehran, on Tuesday to show their readiness to combat the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to protect their religious sites.
The crowd chanted "Death to U.S." and "Death to Israel." They also chanted "Labbaik ya Hussain," an exppression of support for the prophet Muhammad's nephew, an icon for Shia Muslims, and vowed to fight terrorists in the event that their influential cleric Ali Khamenei issues a fatwa, or religious opinion.
Khamenei blames Western powers for the bloodshed in Iraq -- especially the U.S., which he has accused of abusing "the ignorance and prejudice of a group of willful elements."
A former presidential candidate, Saeed Jalili, said the clashes in Iraq is a war of mercenaries working for the U.S., claiming those who organized the biggest acts of terrorism -- by which he meant Western Powers -- are currently fighting with terrorism.
Jalili called on the Iraqi people for unity to foil those who want to trigger sectarian war in their country.
The rallying activists dismissed allegations that Iranian soldiers fight with the Iraqi Army against the militants, saying the U.S. hides the realities in Iraq. He said Iranians see no reason to conceal their fighting if they must fight.
ISIL militants, backed by tribal fighters, seized Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, on June 10, instigating an insurgency that gripped a significant part of the country's north since then.
