Shalamjah Border Crossing, Iran-Iraq Border, May 10: The leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq today after two decades in exile, arriving to expectations that he will figure prominently in the future of the country he was kept from for so long. Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic revolution of Iraq, rolled into Iraq at a desert border crossing that has been a no-man's land for years. About 2,000 supporters, including some clerics, climbed upon his car and chanted: "Yes, yes, Islam! yes, yes, Hakim!"
Hakim's group, known as Sciri, wants Iraq's future to be governed by Islamic law.
Al-Hakim, also known as Baqir, remained in Iran during the weeks after the war last month. His brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, returned to Iraq in advance to pave the way for the Ayatollah's return.
The brother has been meeting with a small core group of returned exiles who appear poised to become the nucleus of a new government installed by us occupation forces.
Al-Hakim has said in recent days that Sciri seeks to "realise the will of the Iraqi people," rebuild the country and establish good relationships with neighbours.
The Bush administration is wary of any Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq, and is particularly jittery about the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shiite clerics. Bureau Report