Chalabi calls for security to be handed over to Iraqis after Najaf outrage:
"BAGHDAD (AFP) - A member of Iraq (news - web sites)'s US-appointed Governing Council called on Friday for internal security to be handed over to Iraqis following the killing of top Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in a devastating car bombing in the holy city of Najaf.
Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Pentagon (news - web sites)-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), blamed remnants of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime and supporters of the al-Qaeda terror network for the attack, which came a little over a week after another deadly bombing wrecked the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
'This is not an inter-Shiite affair,' Chalabi told AFP, flatly rejecting the suggestion that the attack could have been triggered by rivalries over the mantle of leadership of Iraq's majority Shiite community.
'The attack was against the holy shrine,' he said in a reference to the mausoleum of Imam Ali, outside of which the bombing that claimed at least 82 lives occurred.
For a Shiite to carry out such an action 'would be like a Catholic blowing up the Pope at St. Peter's,' said Chalabi, himself a Shiite, albeit a secular one. "
"BAGHDAD (AFP) - A member of Iraq (news - web sites)'s US-appointed Governing Council called on Friday for internal security to be handed over to Iraqis following the killing of top Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in a devastating car bombing in the holy city of Najaf.
Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Pentagon (news - web sites)-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), blamed remnants of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime and supporters of the al-Qaeda terror network for the attack, which came a little over a week after another deadly bombing wrecked the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
'This is not an inter-Shiite affair,' Chalabi told AFP, flatly rejecting the suggestion that the attack could have been triggered by rivalries over the mantle of leadership of Iraq's majority Shiite community.
'The attack was against the holy shrine,' he said in a reference to the mausoleum of Imam Ali, outside of which the bombing that claimed at least 82 lives occurred.
For a Shiite to carry out such an action 'would be like a Catholic blowing up the Pope at St. Peter's,' said Chalabi, himself a Shiite, albeit a secular one. "
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