Iraqis mourn slaying of cleric

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of thousands of chest-beating Shi’ite mourners gathered yesterday to honor Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, a leading cleric whose death in a bomb attack Friday has opened the door to a struggle for control of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority.

“We will not forget the blood of the Seyed Hakim,” chanted the mourners at the Imam Kadem shrine. They came from all parts of Baghdad and all walks of life: from unemployed former soldiers wearing cheap plastic sandals to professionals and merchants praying with colorful beads.

The mourners began assembling at first light for the first of three days of services spanning mosques in three cities across 100 miles to honor Ayatollah al-Hakim, who died Friday when a massive car bomb decimated the crowds outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.

U.S. military officials said yesterday that 125 persons were killed and 142 were injured in the attack, though some Iraqi officials cited death tolls as low as 81.

In another sign of the confusion surrounding the blast, the governor of Najaf said yesterday that no more than five men, all Iraqis, had been detained. The Associated Press quoted an unnamed Iraqi police source as saying that officials had detained 19 suspects — most of them holders of foreign passports and possibly linked to terror network al Qaeda.

Yesterday, men rhythmically beat their chests and women clutched their black all-covering abayas as they wept outside the Imam Kadem shrine, where the seventh of the 12 Shi’ite saints is buried. Some swarmed into the mosque carrying banners calling for revenge.

For Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, who suffered at the hands of Saddam Hussein, the bombing inflamed a centuries-old sense of oppression and martyrdom.

“All history we have been killed and massacred,” said Ali al-Fekari, an economic consultant attending the ceremony. “They killed all the great figures of Islam. But we’re still Shi’ites and we still have our beliefs. Kill one, 100 will come in his place. Kill 100, a thousand will rise.”

During the weekend, Iraq’s clerics conferred in hushed tones in the alleyways of Najaf. Several prominent clerics — including one identified as the son of the powerful Ayatollah Ali Sistani — drove up in white sport utility vehicles for a private meeting at an office in Najaf.

“The situation is very dangerous now,” said Sheik Hassan al-Zergani, a cleric who preaches in the poor Shi’ite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. “They’re not just offering condolences. They have serious issues to discuss.”

Observers of Iraq’s clerical leadership describe an ongoing power struggle pitting middle-class followers of Ayatollah Sistani and the Hakim family against the poorer, younger and more militant adherents of a young cleric named Moqtada al-Sadr.

Under Saddam, no cleric was allowed to deliver Friday sermons at the Imam Ali mosque. Mr. al-Sadr took up residence in nearby Kufa, where his father, slain by Saddam in 1999, had preached.

When Ayatollah al-Hakim arrived from exile in Tehran, the pulpit at the Imam Ali mosque was vacant. With his death, at issue now is which Iraqi cleric will lead Friday prayers at the mosque, second in importance within the Shi’ite sect only to Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina.

“The privileges are moral and political,” Sheik al-Zergani said. “The many religious leaders who pray at the Imam Ali shrine implicitly accept the Friday prayer leader as their superior.”

Story Continues →