Iraqi Shiite Muslims display portraits of slain Hakim

AN-NAJAF, Iraq, August 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The assassination of leading Shiite scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in a deadly car bombing Friday, August 29, the third in less than a month, has fueled a growing impression that the U.S.-led occupation troops are helpless to provide security and stop the chaos in post-war Iraq.

Until August, only U.S. and sometimes British forces were the target of a mounting Iraqi resistance. But now the hits are aimed at "soft" targets which have little military protection but are rich in symbolism.

The spate of car bombings, which kicked off with a blast at the Jordanian embassy three weeks ago and culminated in the bombing of U.N. Baghdad office and Friday's deadly blast, have, in effect, made a mockery of the U.S. claims the situation is improving in the country.

The attack in the holy city of Najaf will very much likely rob the U.S. of "neutral" Shiites, who opted for resisting the occupation "peacefully."

The Washington Post wrote Saturday, August 30, that the death of Hakim "may pose the greatest challenge yet to U.S. efforts to court Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and bring stability to Iraq."

"Without him, U.S. officials lose perhaps their most important interlocutor with the Shiite community at a time the Americans acknowledge is, at best, delicate," the daily opined. 

While The New York Times commented that removing "a central force for political and religious moderation" threatens to complicate the political talks being undertaken in Iraq.

"The killing of Ayatollah Hakim, by stirring up the country's Shiite population, threatens to spread the chaos. Much will depend, it seemed today, on whom the Shiites blame for Ayatollah Hakim's death," the daily said.

Thousands of Shiites also demonstrated Saturday on the streets of An-Najaf and Basra in anger over the assassination of Hakim, heaping the onus on the British and American forces "because they neglected security."

"We swear on Hussein to take the revenge of Hakim," demonstrators said, invoking the name of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), one of the most venerated figures in the canons of the Shiites.

"Our leader al-Hakim is gone. We want (to revenge) the blood of al-Hakim," a crowd of 4,000 men beating their chests chanted in unison outside the mosque today.

A car burst into flames Friday, August 29, outside the Tomb of Ali Mosque compound, one of the most sacred shrines for Shiites, moments after Hakim delivered Friday's sermon to thousands of faithful.

At least 81 others were killed and more than 200 wounded.

Mohammad Baqer al-Naseri, a leading Shiite figure in Iraq, held the U.S. and British occupation authorities in Iraq responsible for the death of Hakim, urging Arab and Muslim countries to rally behind the Shiites in their distress, Aljazeera reported in an impromptu interview with the veteran Shiite.

Not Shiites

Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), pointed the finger at remnants of Saddam's regime and supporters of the al-Qaeda network.

"Fundamentalists and al-Qaeda supporters are working hand in glove with remnants of the Saddam regime" to sow chaos in Iraq, charged Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-handpicked Governing Council, the fledgling civil authority in Iraq.

He flatly rejected the suggestion that the attack could have been triggered by rivalries over the mantle of leadership of Iraq's majority Shiite community.

"This is not an inter-Shiite affair," Chalabi told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "The attack was against the holy shrine," he said in a reference to the mausoleum of Imam Ali.

For a Shiite to carry out such an action "would be like a Catholic blowing up the Pope at St. Peter's," said Chalabi, himself a Shiite, albeit a secular one.

Hakim's death came five days after the attempted assassination in Najaf of Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Said al-Hakim, one of the top Shiite religious authorities. The grand ayatollah escaped but three people were killed in that attack.

Washington had been grappling with the question of whether to change its approach to Iraq. A major strategy review by top U.S. military and civilian officials in Baghdad is set to unfold next week, top U.S. General John Abizaid, tasked with the Iraq theater, told The New York Times Friday.

The U.S. general said he would like to get a 40,000-soldier Iraqi army trained more rapidly than the planned two to three years, even if it was a less than perfect military body.

"Somewhere between the perfect army and the just-good-enough army is the right answer," he said.

It was revealed on August 24 that the U.S.-led occupation authorities in Iraq begun in a contradictory move recruiting agents of the intelligence web of deposed president Saddam Hussein to help capture Iraqi fighters.