Iraqi opposition calls for sending international fact-finding commission to Baghdad

Iraqi opposition circles taking Iran as a headquarters reported the continuation of disorder in Iraqi cities and governorates due to the assassination of Shiite Imam Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sader in al-Najaf last Friday.

Mohammed Baker El-Hakim, head of the Tehran-based Supreme Council of the Iraqi Islamic Revolution, said that 25 people were killed, 50 injured, and a large number of persons were detained due to the clashes.

The secretary general of the Organization of Iraqi Islamic Work, Mohammed Taki, urged Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose country currently heads up the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdul Meguid and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to intervene to stop the Iraqi government form suppressing the public and to end the massacres in the southern cities.