Iraqi official denounces U.S. occupation

Iraqi Official Wants U.S. to Leave Nation

AP -September 2

NAJAF, Iraq - A member of the U.S.-picked governing council angrily denounced the American occupation in a eulogy for his slain brother before 400,000 Shiite mourners Tuesday, demanding U.S. troops leave Iraq and blaming them for lax security that led to the revered cleric's assassination.

Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim spoke in the holy city of Najaf at the funeral of his brother, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. Men clad in white robes and dark uniforms brandishing Kalashnikov rifles stood guard along the roof of the gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, where the cleric was killed Friday in a car bombing.

Shortly before the funeral started, a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad outside police headquarters, killing one police officer and wounding up to 13 people, an Iraqi police officer said. It was the latest attack apparently targeting Iraqis working with the U.S.-led occupation.

Also Tuesday, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed south of Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring another in a "non-hostile" incident, said U.S. military spokesman Spc. Anthony Reinoso. The military also announced that two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq.

The deaths raised to 286 the number of American forces killed in the Iraq war. Of those, 148 died since President Bush declared an end to major fighting on May 1. Seventy soldiers have died in combat since Bush's declaration.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, who cut short his vacation because of the Najaf bombing, said Tuesday that coalition forces want to share responsibility for national security with Iraqis.

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printed from Iraqi official denounces U.S. occupation on 2004-05-25 22:57:36