Word: hakim
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...then, and it still is not. The reconstruction of Iraq has proved far more difficult than any official assumed it would be. Since May 1, 170 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, as sporadic guerrilla attacks have continued. Two potential leaders of the new Iraq--Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and Akila al-Hashimi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq--have been assassinated. Also dead is Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. chief representative in Iraq, who was killed when a bomb exploded at U.N. headquarters last month. After a second bombing last week near...
...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...
Some SCIRI supporters suspect that al-Sadr was behind an attempt on Aug. 24 to assassinate al-Hakim's uncle Mohammed Said al-Hakim. A bomb exploded outside al-Hakim's home, injuring him and killing three. Al-Sadr has denied any involvement in that attack. Moments before last week's blast, al-Sadr was across town at the grand mosque of Kufa, delivering a sermon in which he condemned the attack on the older Hakim. "It was the act of criminals and should be punished," al-Sadr said...