Iraq's Shiite clerics warn country can be pulled into Iran-US war

Two influential Shiite figures in Iraq are warning from pulling their country into a war between the United States and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield and inflict much harm. Their comments came few hours after a rocket was fired into the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling US Embassy. No injuries were reported.

Iraq's populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in a statement on Monday that any political party that would involve Iraq in a US-Iran war "would be the enemy of the Iraqi people." Qais al-Khazali, the leader of an Iranian-backed group, said he is opposed to operations that "give pretexts for war." As US-Iran tensions escalate, there've been concerns that Baghdad could once again get caught in the middle.

(With inputs from agencies.)