Seraphim
08-30-2003, 06:06 AM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030830/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer
NAJAF, Iraq - Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq (news - web sites)'s holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all four have connections to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The official, who said the death toll in the Friday bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men — two Iraqis and two Saudis — were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.
The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force.
The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in which at least 23 people died and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.
The FBI (news - web sites) said the U.N. bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), much of it produced in the former Soviet Union.
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing.
"Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!" a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said Saturday, adding he had been in contact. The U.S.-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.
While many here had blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well.
Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of Iraq's most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.
The blast gouged a three-foot-deep crater in the street in front of the mosque, tore apart nearby cars and reduced neighboring 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.
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 Shiite 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.
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer
NAJAF, Iraq - Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq (news - web sites)'s holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all four have connections to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The official, who said the death toll in the Friday bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men — two Iraqis and two Saudis — were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.
The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force.
The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in which at least 23 people died and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.
The FBI (news - web sites) said the U.N. bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), much of it produced in the former Soviet Union.
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing.
"Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!" a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said Saturday, adding he had been in contact. The U.S.-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.
While many here had blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well.
Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of Iraq's most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.
The blast gouged a three-foot-deep crater in the street in front of the mosque, tore apart nearby cars and reduced neighboring 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.
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 Shiite 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.