The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 03, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
Iraqis mourn death of assasinated Shiite cleric
BY TAREK AL-ISSAWI
THE ASSOCIATE!) PRESS
NAJAF, IRAQ -About 400,000
mourners took to the streets
Tuesday, flailing their backs and
pounding their chests in anguish
at the funeral of a leading Shiite
cleric assassinated in a car bomb
attack. Jn Baghdad, another car
bomb exploded outside police
headquarters, killing one and
wounding 13.
In an angry funeral oration, the
cleric’s brother blamed the U.S.
occupation forces for the lax se
curity that led to the attack at
Iraq’s most sacred Shiite mosque.
He raged against the American
troops and demanded they leave
Iraq. *
Men clad in white robes and
dark uniforms brandishing
Kalashnikov rifles stood guard
along the roof of the gold-domed
Imam Ali mosque, where
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al
Hakim was killed Friday in the
bloodiest attack since the fall of
Saddam Hussein. Accounts of the
death toll ranged from more than
80 to more than 120.
“The occupation force is pri
marily responsible for the pure
blood that was spilled in holy
Najaf, the blood of al-Hakim and
the faithful group that was present
near the mosque,” said Abdel-Aziz’
al-Hakim, fhe ayatollah’s brother
and a member of the U.S.-picked
Governing Council.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil
ian administrator for Iraq, told a
Baghdad news conference that
U.S. occupation authorities will
push the new Iraqi Cabinet to as
sume governing duties and want
to quickly train Iraqis to take over
security.
He insisted there was no rift be
tween the coalition and the
Governing Council.
Bremer, a former diplomat and
counterterrorism expert, said
there were already as many as
60,000 Iraqis involved in security
or undergoing training.
“What we
need at this
point is bet
ter intelli
gence to find
out where
the terrorists
are who are
killing
Iraqis,” he
said.
Al-Hakim has said he would
not resign from the Governing
Council but spoke with great
anger about the American mili
tary’s inability to pacify the coun
try.
“This force is primarily re
sponsible for all this blood and the
blood that is shed all over Iraq ev
ery day,” he said, voicing the frus
trations of Iraqis throughout the
country. The criticism could sig
nal an open fissure in the histori
cally cooperative relationship be
tween the Shiites and the U.S.-led
civilian and military occupation.
“Iraq must not remain occu
pied, and the occupation must
“Iraq must not remain
occupied, and the
occupation must leave
so that we can build Iraq
as God wants us to do.”
ABDEL-AZIZAL-HAKIM
IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL
leave so that we can build Iraq as
God wants us to do,” he said.
During the procession, crowds
surrounded the symbolic coffin
and many mourners beat their
chests in a ritual show of mourn
ing for Shiites.
A senior Iraqi police official
told The Associated Press there
were nine key suspects in the
bombing in custody — two Saudis,
one Palestinian carrying a
Jordanian passport and six Iraqis.
All nine admitted ties to the al
Qaida terror net
work, the official
said, speaking on
condition of
anonymity.
As Tuesday’s
funeral was about
to begin, the car
bomb exploded
outside police
headquarters in
Baghdad, killing one officer and
wounding 13 others in the latest
attack apparently targeting Iraqis
working with the American-led
occupation. An unknown number
of bystanders also were wounded.
Acting police chief Hassan al
Obeidi, who has offices in the
headquarters building and is
closely associated with the occu
pation authority, was not harmed.
There were U.S. soldiers in the
nearby Baghdad police academy,
but they also were unharmed.
It was the fourth car bomb in
the country in the past month.
Earlier blasts included the
mosque in Najaf, the Jordanian
PHOTO COURTESY KRTCAMPUS
An Iraqi police officer is escorted to a vehicle to take him home after he was treated for injuries
caused by a car bomb outside police headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday.
Embassy and the U.N. headquar
ters in Baghdad.
Also Tuesday, a Black Hawk
helicopter crashed south of
Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier
and injuring a second in a “non
hostile” incident, U.S. military
spokesman Spc. Anthony Reinoso
said.
Two U S. soldiers were killed
and a third was wounded when a
bomb went off Monday beside
their convoy in southern Iraq, the
military reported Tuesday.
The deaths raised to 286 the ^
number of American forces killed ^
in the Iraq war. Of those, 148 died
since May 1 when President Bush
declared an end to major fighting.
Seventy soldiers have died in com
bat since the declaration.
Kerry announces candidacy,
stresses military connections
BY MIKE GLOVER
THE ASSOCIATED 1‘HESS
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -
Democrat John Kerry, seeking to
regain his political footing, for
mally launched his presidential
candidacy Tuesday by offering his
Vietnam War-hero credentials
and Senate tenure as an alterna
tive to President Bush’s record.
“Every day of this campaign, I
will challenge George Bush for
fundamentally taking our coun
try in the wrong direction,” Kerry
told the crowd on a steamy mom-A
ing. “George Bush’s vision does W
not live up to the America I en
listed in the Navy to defend.”
The stars-and-stripes an
nouncement with the aircraft car
rier USS Yorktown as a backdrop
and Kerry’s wartime comrades at
his side comes at a critical junc
ture for the four-term
Massachusetts senate^-. Once
viewed as the Democratic front
runner in the crowded field of
nine, Kerry saw that perception
evaporate in the heat of party ri
val Howard Dean’s summer surge.
The political free-fall has
prompted a fresh round of finger
pointing in Kerry’s deeply divid
ed campaign and has the candi
date considering a staff shake-up,^
according to several campaign of-^
ficials who spoke on condition of
cuiuujrmnj.
The tone of Kerry’s speech, in
fact, was the subject of fierce in
ternal debate within the campaign
over whether to focus on the can
didate’s resume and Bush’s per
formance, or lambaste Dean. The
former Vermont governor has
grabbed a hefty 21-point lead over
Kerry in the latest New
Hampshire poll, a crucial state for
the two New Englanders.
Kerry opted to devote much of
his speech to his military service,
years as Massachusetts senator
and Bush’s record on the econo
my, the environment and national^
security. He did take a few subtle^
swipes at Dean.
“Some in my party want to get
rid of all tax cuts, including those
for working families,” he said.
“That’s wrong. We need to be on
the side of America’s middle class
and I’ve proposed a tax cut for
them because it’s the right way to
strengthen our economy.”
Dean favors a repeal of all of
Bush’s tax cuts.
Kerry also alluded to Dean’s op
position to broadening gun-con
trol laws, which has made his
campaign more acceptable to
groups such as the National Rifle
A ccnriaiinn
“Our party will never be the
choice of the NRA and I’m not
looking to be the candidate of the
NRA,” Kerry said. “Courage
means standing up for gun safety^
not retreating from the issue out*
of political fear.”
Kerry hopes to draw similar
distinctions between himself and
Dean at a Democratic presidential
debate in New Mexico on
Thursday, aides said.
At the White House, spokesman
Scott McClellan declined to re
spond to Kerry’s criticism of
Bush, saying, “I think I’ll leave the
politics to the Democrats in their
primary.”
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