In Iraq, the country’s most powerful Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, survived an assassination bid when at least four gunmen fired on his entourage in Najaf. Sistani has been the lead advocate for direct elections in Iraq to form a new Iraqi government. Given his huge following as a Shiite cleric, many consider Sistani to be most powerful man in postwar Iraq. In January, tens of thousands of Shiites responded to his call to protest U.S. plans to transfer power through indirect elections.