BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister warned his people to boycott a planned anti-government protest scheduled for Friday, saying it was being organized by supporters of Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki gave no proof for his assertion in a nationally televised speech Thursday, which echoed similar blanket statements he’s made blaming terrorists and Saddam loyalists for an array of problems in the country.

Religious figures including anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr and the leader of Iraq’s majority community also have raised doubts about the rally.

Al-Maliki’s comments were the strongest to date on demonstrations slated to take place across Iraq that have been described as a “Day of Rage” on Facebook and in Internet postings calling for people to take part in the event. He delivered them about the same time a suicide bomber killed 11 people but failed to blow up his target, an official in Anbar province said.

The prime minister’s warning was another sign of the worry Iraqi officials feel that the uprisings demanding regime change in many parts of the Middle East will buffet Iraq as well.

“Frankly speaking, they are planning to take advantage of tomorrow’s demonstration for their own benefit,” he said.

Iraqis planning to take part in the protest march scoffed at the warning. “Although there are security and religious pressures on us to not participate in the demo tomorrow, we will,” said Omar Al-Mashhadani, an activist with the Al-Nahrian relief organization. “Our aim is not to topple the regime but to make reforms and fight corruption.” In recent days, Iraqi officials have sounded a drumbeat of warnings that appeared designed to scare people off from taking part in the protest, and painting those who do in a bad light.

The Interior Ministry warned demonstrators Thursday that people trying to incite violence may put on police or army uniforms and infiltrate the crowd.

Representatives of Al-Sadr have discouraged their members from turning out. An official close to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Iraq’s Shiite leader, said there are serious safety concerns. He did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation.

As tension heightened around the protest, a suicide bomber trying to assassinate the deputy governor of Anbar province killed 11 people Thursday, said the Chairman of the Anbar Provincial Council, Jasim Al-Halbusi. He said the man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up near a convoy carrying the deputy governor outside of a sports stadium in Ramadi.

Al-Halbusi said seven policemen and a bodyguard were among those killed in the attack. The deputy governor was slightly injured, Al-Halbusi said.

Earlier Thursday, the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush was forcibly detained by the Iraqi Army after making what is believed to be his first public visit to his homeland after being freed from prison. Al-Zeidi became a celebrity in the Arab world after throwing his shoes at Bush during a news conference and calling him a dog. Released from an Iraqi prison after serving a criminal sentence, he eventually left the country in 2009 and has not appeared publicly in Iraq since then.