IRAQ: Thousands of angry Shia Muslims, many vowing revenge, thronged the streets of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf yesterday for the funerals of three men killed in a bomb attack that wounded a senior cleric.
Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, who was slightly injured in Sunday's bombing, is the uncle of the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), criticised by some Shias for co-operating with the US-led occupation.
SCIRI said its movement was the target of Sunday's attack, which blew a hole in the side of Ayatollah Hakim's office and killed three bodyguards. Some supporters blamed a rival cleric who has condemned the presence of foreign troops in strong terms.
Power struggles in Najaf are key to the future of Iraq, whose 60 per cent Shia majority is eager for a taste of power long denied them under repressive Sunni Muslim rule. Many leaders returned from exile after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Faction-fighting among Shias is unwelcome for US forces grappling with an insurgency they blame on Saddam's loyalists.
Washington is keen to rein in more radical Shia leaders who favour a theocratic Islamic republic for Iraq similar to that of their neighbours in Shia Iran.
The bomb followed days of ethnic violence between Kurds and Turkmen in the north, which killed at least 12, and the killing on Saturday of three British soldiers in Basra in the south.
In a sign of increasing security fears, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced it was cutting its Baghdad staff after last week's truck bomb which killed 24 people at the UN headquarters.
In Najaf many in the crowd of at least 2,000 blamed the attack on supporters of a rival leader, Moqtada al-Sadr who has condemned the US occupation. His group has denied involvement.
"This was Moqtada al-Sadr. His people did it," said Mr Muslim Raadi (60), as he followed the procession of three wooden coffins. "Now there will be revenge. The only way to stop this is for the people of Najaf to stop it. We will have to form our own militia."
SCIRI, led by Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, is represented on the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council, which Washington calls a first step towards democracy.
The attack took place near the Imam Ali mosque, tomb of Ali, a caliph and cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, and the most sacred Shia site in Islam. Ten people were wounded by the bomb, which left glass and debris strewn across Ayatollah Hakim's office.Mohammed Hussein al-Hakim, the son of the cleric wounded on Sunday, said the attack was aimed at increasing instability and urged Shias not to descend into a cycle of violence.
US forces based in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit said yesterday they had captured two senior members of the former Iraqi leader's Fedayeen militia. They were captured overnight in separate operations, according to a statement from the US 4th Infantry Division which controls three provinces north of Baghdad. - (Reuters)