Yankee go home, says bereaved

2003-09-02 16:56

Tarek al-Issawi

Najaf, Iraq - In a eulogy to his brother - a revered Shi'ite cleric, a member of the US-picked Iraqi governing council demanded on Tuesday American occupation forces leave Iraq, blaming them for his brother's assassination as 400 000 faithful listened during a burial ceremony in the holy city of Najaf.

Men clad in white robes and dark uniforms brandishing Kalashnikov rifles stood guard every five metres along the roof of Najaf's gold domed Imam Ali shrine during the funeral.

Black mourning banners were draped across the mosque, which on Friday became the site of the country's bloodiest attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein, killing moderate cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. There are varying accounts of how many other people died, ranging from more than 80 to more than 120.

Pure blood was spilt

"The occupation force is primarily responsible for the pure blood that was spilt in holy Al-Najaf, the blood of al-Hakim and the faithful group that was present near the mosque," Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim said in a funeral oration broadcast live on Lebanon's al-Manar television, the official channel of the militant Hezbollah.

"This force is primarily responsible for all this blood and the blood that is shed all over Iraq every day," the governing council member said.

"Iraq must not remain occupied and the occupation must leave so that we can build Iraq as God wants us to do," he said.

Unable to recover al-Hakim's body after the blast, the family buried a symbolic coffin containing his watch, his pen and wedding ring in the 1920 Revolution Square, a cemetery set aside for martyrs in the Shi'ite uprising against British occupation. Al-Hakim's 15 bodyguards, who died with him in the car bombing, were buried in neighbouring plots.

Mourners scooped up sand from the ground in the cemetery to take home as a souvenir.

Earlier, the ayatolah's son warned that Iraq had entered a dangerous new era.

"My believing brothers, the sons of Iraq, our injured Iraq is facing great and dangerous challenges in which one requires strength," the ayatollah's son Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim said, as the funeral procession made one of its final stops before Najaf in the town of Hilla.

Earlier, police on loudspeakers implored the crowds jammed shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets surrounding the shrine to allow the truck carrying the ceremonial coffin to pass. Despite their efforts, the truck was unable to make it to the entrance of the mosque.

Police stood with their weapons ready as gasoline powered pumps sprayed water on the mourners after some fainted from the heat.

Another bomb

As the funeral was about to begin, another car bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in central Baghdad - wounding an unknown number of bystanders. Huge plumes of black smoke rose above the blast scene, where debris lay scattered around the headquarters. There were no fatalities.

Acting Baghdad police chief Hassan al-Obeidi has offices in the headquarters building and is closely associated with the US-led occupation authority.

Also on Tuesday, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed south of Baghdad, killing one US soldier and injuring another. The accident was a "non-hostile" incident, said US military spokesperson Anthony Reinoso.

On Monday, two US soldiers were killed and another wounded when a bomb went off beside their convoy in southern Iraq, the military said.

The deaths raised to 286 the number of American forces killed in the Iraq war. Of those 148 died since May 1 when US President George W Bush declared an end to major fighting. Seventy soldiers have died in combat since Bush's declaration.

Ansar al-Islam denial

The spiritual leader of the al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Islam terrorist group, Mullah Krekar, has denied that his organisation played any role in the Najaf bombing, or the attacks on the Jordanian Embassy on August 7 and the United Nations headquarters 12 days later. His message was broadcast on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television station.

"I consider it very unlikely that members of Ansar al-Islam committed such big and grave acts," Krekar said, adding his group's Islamic convictions prevent them from striking such targets.

The report further muddled the issue of who could have perpetrated the attack.

The CIA said on Monday it was examining an audiotape recording in which a man claiming to be Saddam Hussein denied he was behind the Najaf bombing. Al-Hakim was a longtime opponent of Saddam, and had returned from exile after the US invasion.

The voice on the tape appeared to be that of Saddam and employed his well-known rhetorical flourishes in urging Iraqis not to believe those who blamed him and his followers for the bombing, which came shortly after al-Hakim delivered a sermon calling for Iraqi unity.

Al-Hakim spent more than two decades in exile in Iran, returning only in May.

Snakes, serpents

"Many of you may have heard the snakes hissing, the servants of the invaders, occupiers, infidels, and how they have managed to accuse the followers of Saddam Hussein of responsibility for the attack on al-Hakim without any evidence," said the tape, broadcast by al-Jazeera and the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.

While denying a role in the Najaf bombing, the voice made no mention of the Jordanian Embassy bombing on August 7 or the UN headquarters attack, which investigators suspect may have also been committed by Saddam followers.

However, the tape appeared to have little effect on the anger Shi'ites feel against Saddam and his Baath party. Mourners beat their chests outside the shrine demanding vengeance and a new banner hanging at the entrance of the Najaf declared "Killing Baathists is a national and religious obligation."

The US Marine transfer of patrols in Najaf to an international force led by Poland, set for this week, had been put on hold. The overall handover ceremony will still take place Wednesday in Hilla, said Major Rick Hall, speaking for the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.

Some Iraqi police officials leading the investigation of the bombing have said they believe al-Qaida linked Islamic militants were behind the attack - not Saddam loyalists. The FBI said it would help investigate the bombing after receiving a request from local officials.

Iraq's 25-member governing council announced a cabinet that mirrored exactly the council's ethnic and religious breakdown, with 13 Shi'ites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds (also Sunnis), one ethnic Turk and an Assyrian Christian.

The information ministry, which became famous for its distorted accounts of the war, has been abolished.

The council, formed on July 13, had been promising for weeks that it would name a government. It was unclear what delayed announcing the cabinet, but several council members had spent much time after their appointment on trips throughout the world seeking recognition for the body as the legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.

Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator for Iraq, has said an election for a new government could take place as early as the end of 2004 after the adoption of a new constitution.

- AP