Hundreds of thousands seen off al-Hakim in al-Najaf
Iraq-USA, Politics, 9/3/2003

The mourning which overwhelmed the funeral of Muhammad Baqer al-Hakim in al-Najaf, Iraq, yesterday was given a political dimension by his brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the deputy chairman of the Higher Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, in very strong criticism of the American occupation forces which he held responsible for Friday's massacre in Imam Ali shrine and called on these forces to leave Iraq, immediately.

Al-Hakim explained before 400,000 participants in the funeral of his brother which took place amid an intensive security presence of members of the Iraqi police, Filaq Bader, the military wing of the higher council of the Islamic revolution that "the occupation forces are, in the first place, responsible for the pure bloods shed in al-Najaf, the bloods of al-Hakim and the group of believers who were near the shrine."

Al-Hakim stressed he will not resign from the governing council in which he is a member but he strongly talked about the American military inability to establish peace in the country. He said "these forces are in the first place responsible for these death and all bloods shed in all parts of Iraq every day." He added "Iraq should not continue to be occupied and the occupation has to leave in order to be able to build Iraq as God wants us to do."

Meantime, an official in the Iraqi police said yesterday that the Iraqi security forces are detaining nine persons suspected to be involved in al-Najaf explosion including two Saudis and one Palestinian carrying a Jordanian passport and the others are Iraqis. He added that the nine men admitted that they all have links to al-Qaida network led by Osama Bin Laden, noting that one of them was carrying a message says "the pig is killed."

Just before the funeral ceremony ended, a booby trapped car went off before the main headquarters of the Iraqi police in al-Rasafa area in the downtown of Baghdad and this resulted in killing one policeman and wounding other 13. The headquarters includes an office for the current leader of Baghdad police Hassan al-Obeidi who was very close to the American occupation forces who was not hurt.

On the other hand, the American occupation army said that one Black Hawk plane was crashed to the south of Baghdad in a non hostile incident and this resulted in killing an American soldier and wounding another. It added that two other US soldiers were killed and a third wounded by a landmine explosion on Monday in a military procession to the south of Baghdad.

Witnesses said that two American soldiers were wounded yesterday when their jeep car was hit by an explosive in al-Falouja.

Previous Stories:
  al-Jazeera: Saddam Hussein denies any link to assassinating al-Hakim   (9/2/2003)
  The first Iraqi government after Saddam takes constitutional oath today   (9/2/2003)
  Hakim in interview to Al-Ahram one day before assassination   (9/1/2003)
  First attack against the Bulgarians in Iraq   (8/30/2003)
  One American killed, British headquarters attacked; Abizaid wants Arab, Islamic forces   (8/30/2003)
  One British killed, 13 American wounded in attacks; Kurdish- Turkman agreement to avoid confrontation   (8/29/2003)
  US claims that behind the violence in iraq, progress is made   (8/25/2003)
  Two US soldiers killed in Iraq, Spanish base attacked, Turkey considers sending troops   (8/23/2003)

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