BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric blamed the Baghdad government on Friday for the killing of scores of protesters, and gave it a two-week deadline to find out which "undisciplined elements" had used snipers to shoot them.

The intervention by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who rarely weighs in on politics except in times of crisis, will place new pressure on Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to curb the power of Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, widely blamed by the public for killing more than 100 protesters in a crackdown.