Baghdad, Aug 31: Tens of thousands marched early today through Baghdad in a funeral procession for Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, the revered Muslim Shiite leader assassinated in a bomb massacre in the holy city of Najaf. The procession was led by a coffin carrying the remains of his body. Beating their chests and thrusting their hands in the air, the mourners filed through the winding streets of Kadhimiyah, a middle-class Shiite area on the banks of the river Tigris.

"Allahu Akbar (god is greatest)," some shouted, while others cried: "Hakim has made America tremble with fear." Hakim's body will be transported to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 80 km south of Baghdad tomorrow, for a similar procession, before his corpse is returned to Najaf for burial on Tuesday. Hakim died in Najaf, 180 km south of the capital, when two cars exploded outside the mausoleum of Imam Ali, in an attack that left at least 82 others dead and 125 wounded. Bureau Report