Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's senior-most Shia cleric, has called on Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni fighters advancing towards Baghdad, prompting an immediate response from hundreds who volunteered to bolster the capital's defences.
Sistani's issued the call to arms on Friday to defend Iraq against the offensive spearheaded by the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who have gained more ground in the country overnight, by seizing the strategically important towns of Jalulah and Saaiydiyah.
"Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose," Sistani's representative announced on his behalf during Friday prayers in the Shia shrine city of Karbala.
"He who sacrifices for the cause of defending his country and his family and his honour will be a martyr," he added.
The elderly Sistani, who rarely appears in public, is highly influential in the Shia Muslim world and is revered by millions, AFP news agency reported.
Shortly after Sistani made his appeal, more than a thousand volunteers from the Shia city of Karbala made their way down to an army camp in the city of Taji, about 30km north of Baghdad.
The Associated Press news agency reported that they were set to take part in a one-day training course before being deployed to fight alongside Iraqi troops.
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