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Reports: 17 Killed in Car Bombing in Iraq

Posted on: Friday, 29 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Arab satellite broadcasters Friday reported a car bombing during Friday prayers in Najaf at the Imam Ali mosque, the holiest shrine for Shiites in Iraq. The reports said as many as 17 people were killed and dozens injured.

The Dubai-based al-Arabiya network first reported five dead, but later raised the death toll to at least 17. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said the bombing killed five.

The reports could not immediately be confirmed, although there has been considerable unrest among the Islamic factions in the holy city, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad.

The latest report of a bombing in Najaf comes one week after a bomb exploded outside the house of one of Iraqi's most important Shiite clerics, killing three guards and injuring 10 others including family members.

The gas cylinder was placed along the outside wall of the home of Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim in Najaf. It exploded just after noon prayers Aug. 24.

The cleric suffered scratches on his neck, according to Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a member of Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council and leader of what was the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, headquartered in Iran before the war.

The Al-Hakims are one of the most influential families in the Shiite community in Iraq.

Iraqi newspapers reported two weeks ago that the cleric al-Hakim had received threats against his life. He also is one of three top Shiite leaders threatened with death by a rival Shiite cleric shortly after Saddam Hussein was toppled April 9.

A day after Saddam's ouster, a mob in Najaf hacked to death a Shiite cleric who had returned from exile. Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed when a meeting called to reconcile rival Shiite groups erupted into a melee at the Shrine of Ali.

Shiites make up some 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million population.

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