Shiites mourn slain leader as world blasts car bombing
Thousands of Iraqis yesterday angrily mourned the country's top Shiite Muslim leader, killed with at least 81 other people in the worst bombing since the start of the US-led occupation, while the attack was condemned around the world.
Thousands of mourners poured onto the streets of the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, where the attack happened, and the southern city of Basra, crying for revenge and denouncing the failure of the US-led coalition to bring law and order to the country.
The United Nations and the White House also vigorously condemned the assassination on Friday, the Islaimc holy day, of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, while analysts said it would deal a blow to efforts to rebuild the war-shattered country.
The blast, along with deadly attacks on the UN headquarters and Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, have created the impression the country is spinning out of control five months into the occupation.
In Najaf, 180 km south of Baghdad, more than 2,000 mourners demonstrated, shouting: "We swear on Hussein to take the revenge of Hakim," and invoking the name of the grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, one of the most venerated figures in the canons of the Shiite faith.
Gathered near the charred cars, heaps of brick and shattered glass from the explosion, they also shouted slogans against the United States over the death of their leader who discreetly cooperated with the US presence in Iraq.
Ammar Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the son of Hakim's brother and Governing Council member Abdel Aziz, lashed out out at the US-run coalition while addressing the demonstrators, saying it was not welcome in Iraq.
"We have told the occupation forces that Iraq is for Iraqis and not for them," Hakim's nephew said. He urged the Americans to hand over security control.
In the southern port of Basra, more than 5,000 people marched from the local office of Hakim's political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to el-Ebla mosque in the heart of Iraq's second largest city.
"There is no God but Allah. Death for Israel. Death for Baathis," chanted the marchers, who also blamed the Americans for their leader's death.
"The responsibility of Hakim's death lies on the British and American forces because they neglected security," they shouted.
Even as demonstrators raged against America, rescue workers in Najaf combed the mountains of rubble for Hakim's body, which still has not been found.
But family members said one of his hands and some of his flesh had been recovered and that his funeral will be held Tuesday.
Moments before his death, Hakim had delivered his weekly sermon in the Tomb of Ali, in which he denounced Saddam loyalists.
The car bombing, which wounded 229 other people, followed an August 19 suicide truck bombing on the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 100.
Earlier this month another attack at the Jordanian embassy in the capital claimed 14 lives.
UN staffers in Baghdad paid a final tribute Saturday to those killed in the attack on the UN offices, which has since led to a substantial reduction in the number of world body staff in the Iraqi capital.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also strongly condemned the attack in Najaf and called on all groups in Iraq to refrain from violence and revenge.
US President George W. Bush denounced the bombing as "vicious" and said the United States would help hunt down those responsible.
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