Bomb at Iraq police HQ kills one, top cleric buried
( 2003-09-03 09:38) (Agencies)
Iraq's fourth major vehicle bombing in a month killed an Iraqi policeman at Baghdad police headquarters, as tens of thousands of mourners packed the holy city of Najaf to bury a slain top Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
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| Mourners march during a funeral procession remembering Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim in Dearborn, Mich., Tuesday, Sept 2, 2003. Al-Hakim was the Shiite cleric killed in a car bombing at a mosque last week in Najaf, Iraq. [AP] |
FBI agents joined searches on Tuesday for clues on who was behind the four attacks -- the police headquarters, the cleric and his followers, the United Nations offices in Baghdad and the Jordanian embassy. All involved huge car or truck bombs.
Before the four bombings, violence had been largely grenade and gun attacks that Washington blamed on die-hard Saddam Hussein supporters. Since then U.S. officials have made increasing mention of al Qaeda and other foreign fighters.
"I think it is true that Iraq now faces an important terrorist threat," Iraq's U.S. governor Paul Bremer, a counter-terrorism expert, told a news conference in Baghdad.
The mourners in Najaf slapped their chests and heads in traditional Shi'ite rituals at the funeral of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, a powerful leader of Iraq's Shi'ite majority who had advocated cautious cooperation with the U.S.-led occupiers.
Hakim died along with more than 80 of his followers outside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf last Friday in the deadliest attack since Saddam was toppled by U.S.-led forces on April 9.
Shi'ites were repressed under Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, and many believe his supporters killed Hakim. But they also blame U.S. forces for insecurity.
"No, no to America," the crowd trailing Hakim's coffin chanted as it entered the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites for Shi'ite Muslims.
Some mourners lashed themselves with small chains, while others paused to drink from bathtubs filled with icy water along the roadside as temperatures rose to around 113 Fahrenheit in Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.
POLICE CHIEF "PROBABLY TARGET"
Iraqi police Brigadier Saeed Muneim said Baghdad police chief Hassan Ali was probably the target of Tuesday's blast. Ali is a top figure in U.S.-led efforts to bring security to Iraq.
The U.S. military said one police officer was killed and hospitals reported 15 people had been wounded.
"We are here to serve Iraq," said Lieutenant Colonel Yahya Ibrahim, bloodstains on his pale blue police shirt and a bandage over a head wound.
President Bush has vowed not to retreat from Iraq as he begins campaigning for re-election next year, but a Democratic presidential hopeful accused him of a rush to war that had left the United States isolated and less safe.
"The swagger of a president saying 'Bring 'em on' will never bring peace," said Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a decorated Navy veteran launching his bid for the Democratic nomination.
Sixty-seven U.S. and 11 British soldiers have been killed in attacks since Bush declared major combat over on May 1.
Iraq has the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia, but efforts to get the industry powering an economic recovery have been plagued by looting and sabotage.
Bremer, tasked by Bush to secure Washington's vision of a peaceful democratic Iraq, said repairs to the northern oil export pipeline to Turkey would be completed as scheduled by Thursday after sabotage attacks. Turkey's Energy Ministry has said the pipeline will reopen on that date.
Bremer said a separate act of sabotage at the weekend had cut off part of the Kirkuk oilfields from the pipeline. He said this could take some weeks to repair, but he was unsure what impact it would have on exports.
"Obviously if we have a pipeline break between Kirkuk and that (export) pipeline then we have a problem of how we get to the main export line," Bremer said.
Amid calls from the United States for other countries to provide troops and funds for Iraq, U.N., World Bank and International Monetary Fund officials meet Iraq's U.S.-led administration in Brussels on Wednesday.
The meeting is designed to lay the groundwork for a conference of donor countries in Madrid in October.
Iraq's U.S.-backed Governing Council, which includes Hakim's brother, appointed a cabinet of 25 ministers on Monday and they are due to be sworn in on Wednesday.
The ministers will formulate policy with the Governing Council and the occupying authorities. Ultimate power remains with Bremer until a general election. No date has been set.
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