BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt denounced Tuesday in a letter to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani the recent explosions that targeted several Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, the National News Agency reported.

“I strongly denounce the terrorist explosions that took place in Iraq and targeted dozens of innocent people,” Jumblatt wrote. “This highlights the need to combine forces of all the Iraqi people and consolidate the internal national unity.”

Jumblatt also sent a message to prominent Iraqi Shiite figure Moqtada al-Sadr and expressed his appreciation of the latter’s stances that “prioritize preserving Iraq’s unity and avoiding sectarian strife, which is one of the aims of the [recent] terrorist explosions.”