ASSASSINATION OF AYATOLLAH HAKIM BLAMED ON SADDAM LOYALISTS
BEIRUT-TEHRAN, 29 Aug. (IPS) Loyalists to the ex-regime of Iraq were behind the killing of Ayatollah Mohammad Baer al-Hakim, the leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI), according to his younger brother, Hojjatoleslam Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
Ayatollah Hakim died Friday in a car-bomb explosion at the entrance of the
shrine of Ali, the world’s 200 to 250 millions Shi’ite Muslims first imam
situated in the Iraqi holly city of Najaf, 150 kilometres south of
Baghdad.
A car, filled with powerful explosives, detonated near Ayatollah Hakim’s car as he was coming out of the shrine where he had delivered his Friday sermon to hundreds of thousands of worshippers, calling on the Iraqis not to cooperate with the followers of the toppled dictator, Saddam Hoseyn, who had massacred most of his family in 1980 as well as thousands of Iraqi Shi’ites. The explosion also killed more than 80 people.
"The operation was highly sophisticated, the work of trained professionals who had inside information about the Ayatollah’s movements", one former Iranian intelligence officer told Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity.
In a telephone conversation with Lebanese TV channel Al-Manar, Hojjatoleslam Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who is the commander of the SAIRI’s military wing, the Badr Brigade and the representative of the Organisation in the American-sponsored Iraqi Provisory Council, vowed that the devotees to the martyred Ayatollah al-Hakim would follow his path and revenge his innocent blood, IRNA, the official Iranian news agency reported.
The 63 years-old Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer, considered as a moderate cleric but opposed to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, had returned to his native Iraq last may after having spent 23 years in exile in neighbouring Iran, where he had found the SAIRI, Iraq’s's largest Shi’ite political party.
The Islamic Republic of Iran declared a three days national mourning and pledged to help finding the terrorists responsible for the deadly explosion, the second after the one that destroyed the offices of the United Nations in Baghdad, killing more than 20 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the UN’s special Representative for Iraq.
"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while condemning this violent and blind act, holds occupying forces in Iraq directly responsible, which based on international principles are responsible for preserving security in Iraq", IRNA quoted an official statement as saying.
"The martyrdom of (Ayatollah al-Hakim) is a grave catastrophe for the Iraqi nation and is another document of the occupiers' crimes which have imposed insecurity and chaos on Iraq with their illegitimate presence", the independent Iranian Students News Agency ISNA quoted Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic as having said.
Three days earlier, another senior member of the SAIRI, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Sa’id al- Hakim, an uncle of the assassinated Ayatollah was injured in an explosion in Baghdad, killing three guards and injuring 10 others including family members.
Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian "Governor" of condemned the attack, saying it demonstrated that "the enemies of the new Iraq will stop at nothing".
"Again, they have killed innocent Iraqis. Again, they have violated one of Islam's most sacred places. Again, by their heinous action, they have shown the evil face of terrorism", Bremer said in a statement.
"We deplore this horrible act of terrorist violence", said a White House official. "We will not be deterred in our efforts to help the Iraqi people rebuild their country and establish a representative democratic government", he added.
The Governing Council issued a statement calling for three days of mourning from Saturday. "Criminal acts like these will only make the people more determined to continue on the path towards building a new Iraq", the statement said, as thousands of Shi'ites waving banners and pictures of Hakim later marched through Baghdad, many beating themselves in grief at the cleric's death.
Though no group has claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion, some Iranian and Iraqi analysts said members of the Iraqi intelligence loyal to Mr. Hoseyn, who is still in the hiding, but as well Sh’ites rival to the SAIRI, like Hojjatoleslam Moqtada Sadr, a young and turbulent cleric who struggles for the leadership of the Iraqi Shi’ites, might be behind the operation.
But the group, which is blamed for the assassination of Hojjatoleslam Abdol Majid al-Kho’i, a pro-western cleric killed also in Najaf days after his return from London at the end of Saddam Hoseyn’s rule, has denied any involvement in the explosion.
Mr Moqtada is the son of Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, another leading Iraqi cleric also killed by Saddam Hoseyn in 1999.
Shi’ites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population of over 20 millions, not only were left out of the government, controlled by the Sunni minority, but also badly suppressed by the former tyrant.
"There is a very serious chance that what we are entering here is a Shi'ite civil war akin to what happened in Iran in 1979-80 with rival factions jockeying for power", the British news agency Reuters quoted Ali Ansari, an expert on Iran at Britain's Durham University.
Hojjatoleslam Mohsen al-Hakim, a nephew of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer and his representative in Tehran partly blamed the American for the Friday explosion, saying that though SAIRI had warned "occupation forces and authorities" about the dangers that menaces the life of the senior cleric, no special measures had been taken.
"We had several times told the occupation forces that Iraqi people must be involved in the security process and peace keeping in Iraq, but unfortunately all our demands had been ignored and here is the result, despite all the precautions we had taken for the safeguard of the Ayatollah and other senior members of the SAIRI", he told the Persian service of the BBC.
Like many other Iraqis, he also blamed Saddam supporters for the terrorist operation. ENDS AYATOLLAH HAKIM KILLED 30803