Iraqi Shi'ite leader and aide killed in Najaf

11.45am

KUWAIT - Men burst into Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine on Thursday and stabbed and shot dead senior cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei and an aide, apparently as part of a power struggle in the city of Najaf, now under US control.

"This mob armed to the hilt with knives and guns entered the mosque. They were targeting us for sure," said Ma'ad Fayad, an Iraqi journalist with the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

"They grabbed hold of the Imam and stabbed him. Then they shot him. The sanctuary became a battlefield," he told Reuters. The killings took place in the revered Shi-ite gold-domed Ali Mosque in the central Iraqi city of Najaf.

Officials at the London-based Khoei Foundation said Khoei, the son of the late leader of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, and his aide Haider Kelidar had been assassinated.

The killings are expected to fuel tension among Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims, long oppressed by ousted president Saddam Hussein, himself a Sunni Muslim.

"Right now what we need in Iraq is stability, calm and peace and whoever did this damaged these things," said Mohsen Hakim, a senior official in the Tehran-based Iraqi Shi'ite group, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

Iraqi opposition sources in neighbouring Kuwait and witnesses in Najaf said the two clerics might have been killed due to infighting between Shi'ite groups vying for power in the city of half a million under US control since last week.

Shi'ite Muslims make up 60 per cent of Iraq's population but were persecuted for decades by Saddam's Sunni-dominated administration. Saddam's overthrow was expected to prompt sectarian feuding and score-settling between rival groups.

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 al-Khoei defected to London shortly after the uprising and returned to Najaf after US forces took control last week. Supporters said he was helping the Americans restore order in the city, 160km south of Baghdad.

Other Iraqi dissidents say Khoei's rapid return to Iraq -- and the United States' clear backing for him -- had sparked intense criticism from other Iraqi Shi'ites also keen to assert their authority after the fall of Saddam.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "appalled" by the death of Khoei who he had met several times in London.

"He was a religious leader who embodied hope and reconciliation and he was committed to building a better future for the people of Iraq," Blair said in a statement.

Khoei's critics allege he was not as anti-Saddam as he wanted his followers to believe. Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera said the other dead man, Haider Kelidar, had apparently worked for Saddam's ministry of religious affairs.

Khoei was poorly received in a recent trip to Shi'ite bastion Iran, where opponents rallied against him chanting: "Go Back to America".

Asharq al-Awsat's Fayad said Najaf residents had asked the Americans to help Khoei on Thursday, but they did not respond. Since occupying Najaf last week, US troops have trod carefully around the holy shrine for fear of upsetting the Shi'ites.

The Ali Mosque where the two men were killed on Thursday contains the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and the first Shi'ite leader.

Iraqi dissident cleric Sheikh Fazel al-Haidari said Abdul Majid was killed by fighters loyal to Saddam, but Ghanem Jawad of the Khoei Foundation told al-Jazeera television the attack was aimed at inciting sectarian strife between Shi'ites.

Khoei's nephew, Jawad al-Khoei told Reuters from the Iranian holy city of Qom that Abdul Majid was knifed to death by "treacherous hands".

Abdul Majid's father was close to Iraq's leading Shi'ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who last week urged his followers not to hinder the US-led invasion of Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war