Crowd of 300,000 mourn Shi'ite leader

BEATING their chests and calling for revenge, more than 300,000 Muslims began a two-day, 110-mile march yesterday to the holy city of Najaf to mourn a cherished Shi'ite leader assassinated in a car bombing.

The US military reported that 125 Iraqi's died in the attack on the Imam Ali mosque, a dramatic increase from earlier hospital reports of 85.

Najaf Governor Haider Mehadi yesterday requested that the FBI help Iraqi police investigate the truck bombing, a Coalition Provisional Authority official said. FBI officials were to travel to Najaf shortly to meet with authorities there, he said. FBI agents are leading the investigations into both the August 7 bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and the attack on UN headquarters 12 days later.