Najaf, Aug 30: Thousands demonstrated today on the streets of Najaf and Basra in anger over the assassination of leading Shiite politician Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, who was killed in a car bombing a day earlier. More than 2,000 gathered in the holy city of Najaf, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad, at the site of the blast outside the tomb of Ali mosque compound, one of the most sacred shrines in Shiite Islam, where a vehicle burst into flames moments after Hakim delivered his sermon to thousands of faithful.
At least 81 others were killed and more than 200 wounded.
"We swear on Hussein to take the revenge of Hakim," demonstrators said, invoking the name of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, one of the most venerated figures in the canons of the Shiite faith.
"God is great. Oh Hussein. Our leader Hakim is gone," they cried near the charred cars, heaps of brick and shattered glass from the explosion.
They also shouted slogans in anger against the United States over the death of their leader who discreetly cooperated with the US presence in Iraq.
"No, no America," they shouted after gathering at 9:45 am (1115 IST).
In the southern port of Basra, more than 5,000 people marched from the local office of Hakim's political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to the el-Ebla mosque in the heart of Iraq's second largest city. Bureau Report