Word: hakim
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first the Ayatullah's fate was unclear. The blast occurred moments after the Friday morning prayers, and most of those outside believed he had not yet left the shrine to Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, in the heart of Najaf. Assuming that al-Hakim was still inside, many had thought he would have been protected from the explosion by the shrine's massive western wall and its huge door, the Bab-e-Kibbleh, which remained standing. But when the bomb went off, the 64-year-old cleric was outside the shrine and about to get into...
Back at the bomb site, rumors about al-Hakim continued to swirl. It was not until 5 p.m. that his death was confirmed, and by then about 80 bodies had been counted. With more than 150 injured, the main hospital in Najaf was straining to cope with the load. "This is a catastrophe for Iraqis," said Hassan al-Naji al-Moussawi, imam of the Mohsen Mosque in Sadr City, Baghdad's Shi'ite-dominated suburb, once known as Saddam City. "And for it to happen at the walls of the Imam Ali shrine, it's as if somebody has reached...
...power struggle within the Shi'ite leadership. Although they are the majority in Iraq, Shi'ites were repressed under Saddam's rule. Whoever establishes himself as a leader of the Shi'ites now will have substantial power in any future political arrangements. As the founder of SCIRI, al-Hakim represented the relatively moderate, pragmatic faction of the Shi'ite community. Although he had long espoused anti-American sentiments, al-Hakim had been prepared to cooperate with the CPA. His brother Abdel Aziz al-Hakim is SCIRI's representative in the U.S.-appointed Governing Council for Iraq, and in Bakir...
...Sadr, 29. Cooperation with the coalition is anathema to al-Sadr, whose power base lies among the poorest Shi'ite communities, especially in Sadr City. Descended from a line of venerated ayatullahs, two of whom were executed by Saddam's regime, al-Sadr has the one thing the Hakim brothers lacked: street cred. He speaks in the rough argot of the slums, and his sermons, usually given after Friday prayers, are delivered in a take-no-prisoners style that appeals to young Shi'ites...
People in Najaf and other Shi'ite towns in southern Iraq think they know exactly what al-Sadr is capable of. In the days after Saddam's fall, his bodyguards were accused of knifing to death--at the gates of the mosque where al-Hakim was killed--the moderate cleric Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, who had just returned from exile in London. (At the time, al-Sadr told TIME that the bodyguards involved had been dismissed before the assassination and that he had nothing to do with the killing of al-Khoei.) In April, al-Sadr's supporters surrounded...