CAIRO, 1 September 2003 — Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Al-Hakim, the leading Shiite politician killed in a massive bomb attack in Najaf, accused US forces of not doing enough to maintain security in Iraq in an interview with Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper a day before his death, published yesterday. “We told the Americans that their policies in Iraq were wrong as was their understanding of reality,” said Hakim, who was killed on Friday along with 82 other people in a car bomb attack in the holy city of Najaf. “They bear a large part of the responsibility for the lack of security and lax protection of holy sites,” he added in the interview conducted in Najaf.
Hakim singled out an assassination attempt against his relative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Said Al-Hakim, wounded in a bomb attack on his house on Aug. 24 that killed three people. “We had received information and threats before the attempt ... and we told the Americans,” he said, blaming the attack on supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
Hakim also warned that certain factions, which he did not name, were attempting to spark inter-Shiite conflict. “There are circles working to create a conflict between Shiites, just as there are circles that are seeking to spark inter-Arab conflict,” he said.
Asked why his brother Abdul Aziz, a governing council member and No.2 in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), had agreed to sit on the US-appointed body, Hakim said: “We took part to contribute to bringing an end to the occupation, and to reduce the presence of American forces in Iraq.”
SCIRI, headed by Hakim until his death, is the main Iraqi Shiite political faction and for many years was based in Iran. The Najaf attack, suspected to have been carried out by loyalists of Saddam Hussein or more radical Shiite factions, may shatter the quiet cooperation with occupation forces Hakim promoted among Iraq’s Shiite majority.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Iranians yesterday mourned the death of Hakim, Iranian television reported. Mourners, including women dressed in black, were shown converging on a Tehran mosque for a ceremony led by Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had announced three days of mourning. Analysts said Hakim’s death was a blow to the Islamic Republic which had nurtured him in exile, even though he had pursued a policy of cautious cooperation with Iran’s arch foe, the United States. Iran has blamed failures in security by the US-led occupiers for the killing.
