http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25014

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: from Arab News War Correspondent in Najaf, Iraq; filed 2 pm GMT; April 10: Former Iraqi general Nizar Al-Khazaraji and Islamic scholar Majid Al-Khoi’i have both been executed by Iraqi residents of Najaf, according to five independent Iraqi witnesses to the incident who spoke to Arab News, the only foreign publication with a correspondent in the city today. The two potential Iraqi leaders of the city, who were supported by the US, “were afterwards chopped into pieces with swords and knives inside the Ali Mosque this morning by Iraqis who accused them of being American stooges,” one of the witnesses said. Another said that a US Special Force Soldier, who had been acting as their body guard, was also killed in the incident.

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Iraqi Shi'ite Leader, Aide Assassinated in Najaf

April 10, 2003

By Mehrdad Balali

http://story.news.yahoo.com/

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Sh'ite leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei and his aide were assassinated in an attack in the holiest shrine in the central Iraqi city of Najaf Thursday, members of his family foundation told Reuters. Ali Jabr of the London-based Khoei Foundation said Abdul Majid, who is the son of the late leader of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, was killed at the Grand Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf Thursday afternoon.

Later, fellow Khoei foundation member Ghanem Jawad told al-Jazeera television that Khoei's aide Haidar Kelidar was also killed by what he described as a mob in the mosque attack. Iraqi opposition sources in Kuwait said Khoei's assassination could trigger infighting among Iraqi Shi'ites, who make up 60 percent of the population, as the United States tries to bring together rival groups in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Dissidents say Abdul Majid's rapid return to Iraq -- and the United States' obvious backing for him -- had sparked intense criticism from other Iraqi Shi'ite dissidents eager to assert their authority after the fall of Saddam. Abdul Majid's critics also allege he was not as fiercely opposed to Saddam as he wanted his followers to believe. Supporters of Khoei said the U.S. forces had given him the authority to administer Najaf -- another sore point for other Shi'ite groups.

A spokesman at U.S. Central Command war headquarters in Qatar said he had heard reports about an incident in the Najaf area involving a local leader, but could not give details. A separate U.S. military spokeswoman said Najaf had been relatively calm in recent days "The situation inside that town was not volatile," she said.

Khoei is the son of Ayatollah Seyyid Abdulqasim Musawi al-Khoei, who died in 1992 after being placed under house arrest after Saddam crushed a Shi'ite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. Abdul Majid defected to London shortly after the uprising and returned to Najaf last week after U.S. forces took control of the holy city. Supporters said he was helping the Americans restore order to the city of about half a million Shi'ites.

Al-Khoei's nephew, Jawad al-Khoei told Reuters from the Iranian holy city of Qom that Abdul Majid was stabbed to death at the Grand Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. "An hour ago we talked to the persons who were with him at the time of the incident. They said he was martyred by treacherous hands," Jawad al-Khoei said. Jabr and dissident Iraqi cleric Sheikh Fazel al-Haidari said Abdul Majid was killed by Iraqi fighters loyal to Saddam. "We should not assume Saddam and his Baath party are finished. These Fedayeen (paramilitary) fighters worship Saddam like an idol, he is their preacher," Haidari told Reuters.

The Khoei Foundation's Jawad told al-Jazeera television that the attack in the Grand Imam Ali Mosque was aimed at inciting strife between Shi'ites. He did not elaborate. Abdul Majid al-Khoei is a key aide of Iraq's leading Shi'ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who last week urged his followers not to hinder U.S. and British forces who are waging war on Iraq to topple Saddam's government.



Ayatollah Sistani, whose followers pay him religious taxes and look to him for spiritual and practical guidance, is the supreme religious authority in Najaf. Sistani is also responsible for the shrine of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet and the first leader of the Shi'ite community -- a site sacred to Shi'ites around the world, including more than 60 million believers in neighboring Iran. Khoei was poorly received in a recent trip to Shi'ite bastion Iran, where opponents rallied against him chanting: "Go back to America."

Iraq was ruled by the pan-Arab Baath Party, which has traditionally espoused secular nationalist ideology, but at times of crisis Saddam -- himself a Sunni Muslim -- has invoked religious faith to bolster his policies.



The assasinated Sh'ite leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei is pictured on the left in this August 5, 2003 file photo. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)