Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his followers to prepare for jihad, or holy war, against the extremist Sunni Islamic State (IS) militant group, which is reportedly preparing to attack the city of Samarra, an al-Sadr aide said on Thursday.

"Our brothers the Mujahedeen (holy warriors) in the Peace Brigades must be ready to meet the call of jihad within 48 hours," Abu Du'aa al-Issawi, al-Sadr's assistant for jihad affairs, said in a statement.

Earlier in the year, Sadr called on his followers to form a new militia of "Peace Brigades" to protect Iraq's shrines and holy sites as the IS pushed forward in northern and central parts of the country.

The predominantly Sunni city of Samarra, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, is home to the Shiite shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi. The shrine contains the tombs of Ali al-Hadi and his son Hassan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th of the Shiites' 12 most revered Imams. Shiite pilgrims visit the shrine from all over the world.

On Feb. 22, 2006, the Samarra shrine, also called the Golden Mosque, was hit by a bomb attack in which its 100-year-old Golden Dome was badly damaged.

In 2007, insurgents again bombed two minarets of the shrine. The attacks sparked killings between Shiite and Sunni communities that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Sadr's statement came amid intelligence reports that the IS group was preparing for major attacks on several cities and towns in Salahudin province, including the sensitive religious city of Samarra, which remains under government control.

Large parts of the province have been under IS control since June 11, a day after bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the group which took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit

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