Ayat. Makarem raps states backing DAESH

Addressing the first congress of Clerical Defenders of the Holy Shrines, the religious jusrisprudent Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi lectured certain states siding with Takfiri groups stressing, "those states have once supported Saddam are now supplying the ropute for Daesh in Syria," reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).

The religious cleric beckoned to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's fiasco in eight-year long Iran-Iraq War, highlighting the same story would happen to DAESH supporters.

Referring to the tragedy of Ashoura, wherein Imam al-Husayn, along with 72 of his companions and family members were martyred in the desert of Karbala, Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi underscored, "as the event has not forgotten to date, the sacrifices defenders made would not drift into oblivion."

Afghan, Iraqi and Iranian fighters, who voluntarily gave up their lives to fight Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq and protect holy sites, are known in Iran as the defenders of holy shrines.

Documentaries chronicle what the defenders go through in fighting Daesh terrorists who aim to demolish sacred places.

Dubbed as "Clerical Defenders of the Holy Shrines", the conference aimed at raising awareness about the defenders, inasmuch as they are quite unknown to many of our people.

The conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed more than 400,000 lives thus far and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.

Daesh terrorists, many of whom were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize Syria, now control parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. They have been committing heinous crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

/SR