BAGHDAD, June 27: A senior Iraqi Shia leader has issued a fatwa ordering the killing of any Jew who buys real estate in Iraq, an aide said on Friday.

The Iran-based scholar, Ayatollah Kazem al Husseini al Haieri, also said in the fatwa that selling real estate to Jews was forbidden for Muslims.

Another religious leader cleric at Ayatollah Haieri’s representative office in Najaf said several Iraqis had sought a religious decree after Jews from abroad approached them over the past six weeks.

“Any Jew who tries, from now on, to buy a lot of land or a house in Iraq should be killed,” the decree said. “Selling any lot of land or a house in Iraq to Jews is forbidden.”

Ayatollah Haieri’s secretary, Sheikh Abu Ali al Azaie, confirmed during a telephone call from the Iranian city of Qum on Thursday night that Haieri had issued the decree. “The decree is authentic,” Azaie said.

Iraqi scholars say Ayatollah Haieri, known for his hardline positions, commands respect and influence in the Shia community but it was difficult to gauge the size of his following. He is said to be planning to return to Iraq from his self-imposed exile in Iran.

Followers say they will take him as the highest religious leader, a post occupied now by Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, who is regarded as a moderate.

Mustafa al Yakoubi, the scholar in Najaf, said most of the offers to buy property were made in the Kefl area, between Najaf and Karbala.—Reuters