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A prominent Iraqi judicial source has disclosed to Asharq al-Awsat that the original file of the investigations into the assassination of Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf, 10 April 2003, has dissapeared. The file accuses the young Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and some of his supporters of carrying out the assassination. It added that the warrant for their arrests also disappeared. Raid Juhi, the investigating judge in Najaf at that time, presently chief investigative judge at the trial of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his senior officials, issued the arrest warrant. The source told Asharq al-Awsat that the...

Journalist of the Year Peter Wilson is the first reporter to obtain a brief charging Moqtada al-Sadr with killing a pro-Western rival THE radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is today holed up in Iraq's sacred city of Najaf, trying to negotiate a face-saving compromise after failing to ignite a general uprising among the nation's Shi'ite Muslim majority. But Sadr's future does not rest with the clerics and other go-betweens who are hoping to avert a bloody showdown between his 1000-strong militia and the 2500 US troops ringing Najaf. The fate of Sadr - the angry 30-year-old who last week pledged...

A senior Iraqi judge investigating the murder of a revered Shia cleric flew to Britain on Friday to gather evidence against Moqtada al-Sadr, the hardline Shia leader who is confronting coalition troops in the holy city of Najaf. The judge will interview three Iraqi exiles who witnessed the savage attack last April on Sayed Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a cleric whom Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, hoped would help forge peace in Iraq. The Shia leader, a powerful moderating voice who preached tolerance of other faiths, returned to Iraq from 12 years' exile in Britain only to be shot and hacked...

Journalist of the Year Peter Wilson is the first reporter to obtain a brief charging Moqtada al-Sadr with killing a pro-Western rival THE radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is today holed up in Iraq's sacred city of Najaf, trying to negotiate a face-saving compromise after failing to ignite a general uprising among the nation's Shi'ite Muslim majority. But Sadr's future does not rest with the clerics and other go-betweens who are hoping to avert a bloody showdown between his 1000-strong militia and the 2500 US troops ringing Najaf. The fate of Sadr - the angry 30-year-old who last week pledged...

April 7, 2004 - (Al-Nahdhah) – An announcement concerning details of the assassination of Shia leader Ayatollah Sayyid Abdul Majeed al-Khoei will be issued within the next 24 hours, Ayad Alawi, Chairman of the Governing Council’s Security Committee, has announced. The Ministries of Interior and Justice will make the announcement, he said, which would be backed up by photos and "tangible" evidence. Alawi said the decision to issue the announcement came after the GC summoned investigators and judges supervising the investigations into Khoei’s assassination. The GC wanted to learn the details of the case and understand to what extent Mustafa...

BAGHDAD, April 4 (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq confirmed on Sunday it had detained Mustapha Yacoubi, an aide to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in connection with the killing of Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei last year. Yacoubi's detention stoked anti-American protests by Sadr supporters across the country on Sunday. The largest was near Najaf, where at least 24 people were killed when angry Shi'ite protesters clashed with coalition forces and Iraqi police. Khoei was hacked to death at a Najaf mosque in April, 2003 by a mob which also killed one of his aides. Senior clerics at...

Plan to arrest maverick Iraqi cleric for murder Michael Howard in Baghdad Wednesday October 22, 2003 The Guardian (UK) Coalition and Iraqi officials are preparing an arrest warrant for the firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr over his alleged involvement with the brutal murder of a rival cleric last spring, sources close to the Iraqi governing council told the Guardian yesterday. The warrant, which has yet to be finalised, cites Mr Sadr for instigating a deadly attack on Abdel Majid al-Khoei, who was stabbed to death by a mob in the Shia holy city of Najaf on April 10. It is...

[FBIS Translated Text] The assassination attempt against prominent Shiite cleric Ayatollah Muhammad Sa'id al-Hakim in the Iraqi city of Al-Najaf two days ago triggered a wave of fear and anxiety from Al-Najaf's Hawzah [the Shiite seminary] to the Hawzah of the Iranian city of Qom. A number of senior clergymen were preparing to leave Qom to Al-Najaf to flee the recent constant harassment by the Religious Court and the Revolutionary Guard. In a telephone interview with "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" the son of a prominent clergyman in Qom said his father "was preparing to travel to Al-Najaf in mid-September after it became...

London, UK: Al-Sharq al-Awsat (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic 26 May 03 [Report by Ali Nuri Zadah in London: "Al-Sistani Intends To Visit Iran For the First Time in 40 Years To Get Away From the War in Al-Najaf Between Al-Hakim and Al-Sadr; US Forces Arrest Some of Al-Khu'i's Killers; Qom Religious Authorities Want To Go To Al-Najaf"] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has learned that Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, the supreme Shiite authority in Iraq, intends to visit his homeland, Iran, in order to pay homage to holy Shiite shrines in Qom, where Ma'sumah, the sister of Imam Al-Rida, the eighth Shiite Imam...

Iraq police arrest two over cleric death in Najaf NAJAF, Iraq, May 2 (Reuters) - Iraqi police exchanged fire with gunmen near a holy shrine and cemetery in Najaf early on Friday, detaining two of them suspected of participating in the killing of a senior Shi'ite cleric in the holy city last month. Abdel-Khaliq al-Kaabi, head of a volunteer civilian police force in Najaf, located some 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, told reporters that Mehr al-Baghdadi and a man he identified only as Ihsan were arrested. He said they were among a group of about ten men who...

NAJAF, Iraq - The murder of a pro-Western cleric in this holy city two weeks ago removed America's most promising Shiite Muslim ally and now threatens to fracture Iraq's Shiite majority into warring factions. As accusations reverberate over who was behind the violence, a senior religious authority of the Grand Imam Ali Mosque, where Shiite leader Abdul Majid al Khoei was killed on April 10, said the murderers were followers of Moqtada al Sadr, a fiery young Shiite cleric. Jabar Khanee Jaafer, the mosque's deputy custodian, described the murder in an exclusive and emotional interview with a Knight Ridder...

Mob kills cleric who urged Muslim calm Shooting of Khoei follows strife over status of Islamic shrine NAJAF, Iraq - In one of the holiest mosques in this sacred Islamic city, an angry mob attacked and killed a pro-Western Shiite cleric Thursday, just days after he returned to the war-torn nation from exile in London to help with reconciliation. Witnesses said Abdul Majid al Khoei was shot, stabbed and hacked to death. As many as three others also were killed. The mob apparently was angered over who would get to control the Grand Imam Ali Mosque, a shrine to the...

Thousands of Iranian agents organizing anti-U.S. rallies in Iraq SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMThursday, April 24, 2003 The United States has formally warned Iran against interference in Iraq. U.S. officials said the warning came in wake of intelligence reports that thousands of Iranian agents are organizing the Shi'ite majority in Iraq to oppose the U.S. military presence in that Arab country. The officials said Iran, with the help of Hizbullah insurgents who arrived from Lebanon, is suspected of playing a leading role in the huge anti-U.S. demonstrations by Iraqi Shi'ites over the last week. "We have some concerns about outside...

America nervous as militant cleric's rallies attract mass support By Julian Coman in Washington and Sean Rayment in Kuwait (Filed: 20/04/2003) Every day, the rallies held by Battle to prevent Chalabi taking power grow bigger. Every day the American marines in the eastern Iraqi town of Kut, close to the Iranian border, become more nervous. Mr Abbas is a militant Shia cleric with an unnervingly fine grasp of the political possibilities of post-war Iraq. Some days ago, he walked into Kut town hall and simply took it over, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, many of whom had crossed the border...

Far from moving freely forward on the road to freedom and democracy, post-Saddam Iraq is seemingly heading towards conflicts and political uncertainty. Added to the emerging elements of ethnic and political strife in Iraq's northern part, its southern region, with its large number of Shi'ites is becoming a scene for a high-stakes rivalry among the major Shi'ite contenders. The outcome of this struggle will have a determining impact on the nature of the Iraqi political system, given that Shi'ites account for 60 percent of Iraq's population. The main "battle ground" has been the holy city of Najaf where the powerful...

<p>Mr Chalabi is a US Defense Department favourite. Leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), opposition group in exile that the US and UK have backed since after the 1991 Gulf War.</p> <p>He has the support of Washington hawks and the Department of Defense, and was moved into Iraq last week by the US military.</p> <p>Analysts say that as a Shia, even a secular Shia, he arouses the mistrust of the former Sunni ruling class of Iraq.</p> <p>The Iraqi National Accord was set up in 1990 by the Iraqi-born Shia Iyad Alawi.</p>

BEIRUT: Following the assassination of cleric Abdul-Majid al-Khoei in Iraq Thursday, inter-Shiite rivalry continued as a group of armed Shiites demanded Sunday that top cleric Ali Sistani leave the country by Tuesday, or face attack. “We are investing intensive efforts and making contacts with Shiite factions around the world to try to defuse this problem, protect Sayyed (Sistani) and let him remain in Najaf,” Mourtada Kashmiri, Sistani’s representative told The Daily Star in a phone interview from London. Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, son of late cleric Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr who was assassinated in 1999, surrounded Sistani’s house and ordered him...

Armed men continued to besiege the home of Shia spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Sunday giving him until Monday to leave the country or face attack, aides to the cleric claimed. The stand-off is a worrying sign of volatility and religious strife among Iraq’s majority community and raises concerns of national unity in post-war Iraq. Tensions are rising among Najaf's Shia community Kuwait-based Ayatollah Abul Qasim Dibaji accused Jimaat-E-Sadr-Thani, led by Moqdada Sadr, of trying to take control of the holy sites of Iraq. “Armed thugs and hooligans have had the house of Ayatollah Sistani under siege since...

Armed groups order Shi'ite leader to quit Iraq By Mehrdad Balali KUWAIT, April 13 (Reuters) - Armed radical groups have surrounded the house of Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the central city of Najaf, giving him 48 hours to leave the country, aides to the cleric said on Sunday. "Armed thugs and hooligans have had the house of (Grand) Ayatollah (Ali) Sistani under siege since yesterday. They have told him to either leave Iraq in 48 hours or they would attack," Kuwait-based Ayatollah Abulqasim Dibaji told Reuters. "Total terror reigns in Najaf. They have told other ayatollahs to leave...

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Shi'ite leaders said on Saturday that a radical Muslim group led by an ambitious young rival orchestrated the killing of cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf this week. Khoei was hacked to death by a mob at Imam Ali Shrine, the holiest Shi'ite site, days after he returned from exile in London to help Iraq make the transition to democracy. Iraqi Shi'ite leaders said Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani, a splinter group led by Moqtada Sadr, the 22-year-old son of a late spiritual leader in Iraq, carried out Thursday's attack which left al-Khoei and another cleric dead. "The attackers...

<p>DEARBORN -- On Wednesday they danced in the streets. By Thursday, a more somber mood had settled over Dearborn's Iraqis.</p> <p>The joy was shattered at the news that two members of Dearborn's Karbalaa Islamic Center -- exiled Iraqis who rushed back to their homeland to aid in the country's rebuilding -- had died.</p>

The assassination of Abdul Majid al-Khoei, elder son of the late Ayatollah Khoei, opens the way for the Islamic regime to increase its influence in any future equation related to the Iraqi Shi-ites. Al Khoei family is know for rejecting the Islamic republic regime policies and ideology and the funeral ceremony of the late Ayatollah Khoei, organized 2 years ago, turned into a mass protest and demonstration against the Iranian regime as he was opposed to both dictatorships in Iran and in Iraq. The Islamic republic regime supports Ayatollah Hakim and has armed and trained hundreds of its extremist Iraqi...

Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a key U.S. ally in southern Iraq is murdered, and the power struggle intensifies By TONY KARON The power struggle among Iraqis to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime may have claimed its first victim Thursday when Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei was stabbed to death by unknown assailants inside the Imam Ali Mosque, Shiite Islam's holiest shrine, in the city of An Najaf. According to press reports, al-Khoei was killed during a meeting with a rival cleric backed by Saddam's regime over control of the shrine. The reports said al-Khoei had...

LONDON (AFP) - Pro-Western Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei was assassinated in the holy city of Najaf in central Iraq (news - web sites), the cleric's London-based group, the al-Khoei Foundation, said. AFP Photo Latest news: · Bush, Blair Trumpet New TV Station to IraqReuters - 3 minutes ago · Bush Says U.S. Will Help Iraq with Law and OrderReuters - 4 minutes ago · Several ministries ablaze in Baghdad as anarchy sets inAFP - 5 minutes ago Special Coverage   Details were sketchy, but it appeared that al-Khoei was stabbed to death by a large number of attackers...

Crowd hacks Iraqi clerics to death 10 April 2003 A crowd has hacked to death two leading Islamic clerics in a shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf where rival Shiite factions had gathered for talks. One of the dead, the son of a former Grand Ayatollah, had only recently returned from exile in London. "People attacked and killed both of them inside the mosque," said Ali Assayid Haider, a mullah who travelled from Basra for the meeting of Islamic leaders. The killings took place at the gold-domed Mosque of Ali, one of the holiest Shiite shrines. Najaf is...

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - A crowd rushed two Islamic clerics and hacked them to death in this holy city Thursday, witnesses said. An unknown number of people were injured. ``People attacked and killed both of them inside the mosque,'' said Ali Assayid Haider, a mullah who traveled from the southern city of Basra for the meeting.The accounts could not be independently confirmed.The killings took place at the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites of Shiite Islam, practiced by the majority of Iraqis.Witnesses told reporters visiting the mosque that a meeting was held at 10 a.m. among leading...

Iraqi Shi'ite leader al-Khoei assassinated in Najaf KUWAIT, April 10 (Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Sh'ite leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei was assassinated at the mosque in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday, a member of his family foundation told Reuters. Ali Jabr, a member of the London-based Khoei foundation, confirmed to Reuters by phone that Abdel Majid was dead. The murder is sure to raise tensions among Iraq's majority Shi'ite population. Majid is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah al-Khoei, spiritual leader of Iraq's Shi'ites at the time of the 1991 Gulf War. Al-Khoei's nephew, Jawad al-Khoei, told Reuters...

The question of regime change in Iraq figures prominently in news bulletins and is occupying the full attention of politicians and world leaders, experts in Arab and Islamic affairs, and, of course, the Iraqis themselves. The thorny issue of whether or not there should be a change of regime by force has become the focus of much discussion. Even among those who support such a change there still remains heated argument as to how best this is to be accomplished, and when — each of the involved parties naturally being influenced by political and economic factors and allegiances. The problem...