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Suspects linked with al-Qaida
30/08/2003 13:39 - (SA)
Najaf, Iraq - Iraqi police have arrested four men - including two Saudis - in connection with the bombing of Iraq's most holy Shi'ite Muslim shrine, and all four have connections to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The official, who said the death toll in the Friday bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men - two Iraqis and two Saudis - were caught shortly after the car bombing that also killed one of the most important Shi'ite clerics in Iraq. The dead cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, had been co-operating with the American occupation force.
The police official, who lead the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as electricity generation plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.
The official, who refused to be named, said the bomb at the Imam Ali shrine - the burial place of the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad - was made from the same type of materials used in the August 19 bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, in which at least 23 people died, and the Jordanian Embassy attack on August 7. Nineteen people died in that vehicle bombing.
The FBI said the UN bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein, with much of it produced in the former Soviet Union. In the truck bomb used against the world body, there were many explosives wired together, including a 500-pound Soviet-era bomb, the FBI said.
State of chaos
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to "keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces are unable to focus attention" on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the Friday bombing and were staying with a friend, who did not know their intentions, the official said.
A shadowy group that takes its name from the alias of Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's top deputy who was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001, claimed responsibility for the UN bombing.
Not long after the UN bombing, the Abu Hafs el-Masri Brigades - one of three groups to claim responsibility - made its claim on a Web site, but US officials said they could not authenticate it and it remained unclear if the group exists or has any link to the al-Qaida terror network.
American officials believe militants from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran are infiltrating Iraq to attack Western interests. President Bush said earlier this month that more foreign "al-Qaida-type fighters" have moved in.
'Allegations baseless'
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef dismissed as "baseless" allegations that Saudis infiltrated to Iraq to join the fight against coalition forces.
"These allegations are totally baseless and we know nothing about any Saudi individual entering Iraq through our borders," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat published Saturday.
According to the paper, Prince Nayef requested the extradition of anyone who is proven to be a Saudi that infiltrated to Iraq, to Saudi authorities.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine.
"Our leader al-Hakim is gone. We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim," a crowd of 4 000 men beating their chests chanted in unison in Najaf, 175 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilising force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shi'ite majority to be patient with the United States.
L. Paul Bremer, the US occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said on Saturday, adding he had been in contact. The US-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.
Bremer left Iraq about a week ago and wasn't expected to return until sometime next week, but precise dates were not released for security reasons, said Jared Young, a spokesperson at the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Funeral services
Tens of thousands of worshippers were filled the shrine and the surrounding streets for a funeral services for the victims. It still was not clear when there would be a ceremony for al-Hakim. The main road leading to the shrine was open only to pedestrians, and residents were seen carrying coffins on the tops of cars and backs of trucks for the funeral service.
No Iraqi police or US soldiers were seen in the city centre on Saturday morning.
While many here blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been inter-Shi'ite violence recently in Iraq. Najaf is the headquarters of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shi'ites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.
In Baghdad on Saturday, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq said the bombing would not deter the organisation from co-operating with the Americans.
'US responsible'
"We will continue in our dealing with the Americans, but the Americans should now be more aware of the fact that the Iraqis only are capable of preserving the security in the country," Ali al-Ghadban, a member of the SCIRI politburo, said.
"They (the Americans) are responsible for the incident because of their failure to provide security In Iraq. After this tragic incident, the Americans should understand that our movement, as a member of the governing council, will press harder on the occupation authorities to give Iraqis more powers." he said.
- AP
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