- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- An official
of Iraq's largest Shi'ite Muslim political movement was killed in Baghdad
by gunmen loyal to ousted Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, the group said
Thursday.
-
- A representative of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said Muhannad al-Hakim was shot dead near his
home in Baghdad's Amil district Wednesday, following death threats from
Saddam backers.
-
- "He had received threats that he would be liquidated,
murdered, by the men of the regime," the official said. "They
are behind this crime."
-
- The SCIRI official added that in a separate incident
an angry crowd in the southern city of Najaf had attacked and murdered
an Ali al-Zalimi, an official of Saddam's Baath party who had played a
role in crushing an uprising by Iraqi Shi'ites following the 1991 Gulf
War.
-
- "What happened was that that people surrounded him
with guns, and proceeded to shoot and beat him," the official said,
identifying the killers only as "residents of Najaf who recognized
this criminal."
-
- Political violence has flared among Iraq's Shi'ites,
who make up 60 percent of the population, since the fall of Saddam, whose
government killed numerous religious leaders of the community he regarded
as a fifth column with ties to Shi'ite Iran.
-
- SCIRI's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim was
killed along with about 80 others in August when a car bomb ripped through
one of Shi'ism's holiest shrines where Hakim had just led worshippers in
prayer.
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4012630
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