Word: hakim
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Whoever they turn out to be, the man was right. They had. Among the more than 80 people who died when a car bomb exploded outside the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, 120 miles south of Baghdad, was Ayatullah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, one of the nation's most senior Shi'ite clerics and the founder of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He had been leading the Friday prayers in the mosque. The atrocity was the most devastating event since the end of formal hostilities in the Iraq war and counts...
...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...
...right spot to stop. Then, say both men, it slammed into a corner of the building and exploded. Some 200 yds. away, Hussain Ali, who runs a soft-drink stand, dived to the floor as pieces of concrete came flying toward him. Inside the building, Mohammed al-Hakim, a driver with the International Monetary Fund, was standing in a second-floor office. "Everything seemed to be collapsing around me," al-Hakim says. "There was smoke everywhere. I saw a man lying with a bar of metal through his cheek...
...responsible? It?s not yet known, but the terror attack on Hakim's prayer service certainly benefits the former Baathists fighting to sabotage the political and economic reconstruction under the U.S. tutelage, and they would likely top the list of suspects. No matter who carried out the attack, it's a relatively safe bet that Shiites on the street will blame the U.S. for failing to ensure security. Getting Hakim out of the way also strengthens the hand of the young firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr, who is challenging for power among the Shiite clerics by pursuing a more hostile line...