Angry mourners call for vengeance at shrine

Thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance today as they gathered outside Iraq’s holiest Shi-ite shrine where a day earlier a car bomb ripped through a crowd of worshippers, killing at least 85 people – including a leading cleric.

The bomb, which also wounded more than 140, detonated outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf as Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim emerged after delivering a sermon calling for Iraqi unity. The attack was viewed by many as an assassination.

“Our leader al-Hakim is gone. We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim,” a crowd of 4,000 men beating their chests chanted in unison in Najaf, 110 miles south-west of Baghdad.

The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilising force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country’s Shi-ite majority to be patient with the United States.

Paul Bremer, the US occupation’s co-ordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on holiday and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said today, adding he had been in contact. The US-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.

Bremer left Iraq about a week ago and wasn’t expected to return until sometime next week, but precise dates were not released for security reasons, said Jared Young, a spokesman at the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Tens of thousands of worshippers were expected to fill the shrine and the surrounding streets for a funeral service for al-Hakim and other blast victims later today. The main road leading to the shrine was open only to pedestrians, and residents were seen carrying coffins on the tops of cars and backs of trucks for the funeral service.

No Iraqi police or US soldiers were seen in the city centre this morning.

While many here blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been inter-Shi-ite violence recently in Iraq.

Najaf is the headquarters of Iraq’s most powerful Shi-ite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shi-ites make up about 60% of Iraq’s population.

The blast gouged a 34-ft crater in the street in front of the mosque, tore apart nearby cars and reduced neighbouring shops to a tangled mass of metal, wood and corpses.

“I saw al-Hakim walk out of the shrine after his sermon and moments later, there was a massive explosion. There were many dead bodies,” said Abdul Amir Jassem, a merchant who was in the mosque.

Dr Ishan al-Khosai at Najaf Teaching Hospital said there were 80 dead at his facility. At Najaf Hospital, Dr. Faisal Ouda said there were five dead from the blast. Doctors reported 142 wounded, many critically, and the toll was expected to rise. Arab satellite broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya both reported 229 injured. Medical facilities throughout Najaf were thronged with people looking for relatives and loved-ones.

Hours after the bombing, residents screamed in the streets in grief and anger. Some attacked reporters, while others continued searching through the debris for more victims.

Men and women pressed their hands and faces against the doors of the mosque, which was closed after the blast. Mosaic tiles were blown off the gold-domed building, a sacred Shi-ite shrine where the Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad is buried. The building, which is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year, appeared only slightly damaged.

While the Shi-ites themselves are battling for control of the sect and its future, there was no evidence the bombing was the work of a younger Shi-ite faction. That group has strongest support in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum and has been trying to wrest control from al-Hakim’s followers.