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Iraqi Shi'ite party leader dies, successor eyed
Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:32am EDT
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By Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The leader of one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite Muslim political groups and most important religious dynasties died on Wednesday, adding to political uncertainty in a violent run-up to an election next January.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who headed the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), a major partner in the Shi'ite-led government, died while undergoing treatment for cancer in Iran, ISCI said.
"It is a painful event and a great tragedy," the ISCI-owned television station quoted Ammar al-Hakim, his son and likely successor as party leader, as saying. ISCI officials said two funerals would be held, in Iran and in Iraq.
Hakim, born in 1950, took over the party in 2003 when his brother, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqer al-Hakim, was killed in a car bomb.
ISCI is part of Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance, which also includes Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party, but the party announced this week it would lead a new group to compete in January's polls without Maliki.
Hakim's "death at this sensitive stage that we are going through is considered a big loss," Maliki said in a statement.
State television displayed a black banner of mourning and passages from the Quran in Hakim's honor.
Political analyst Hazim al-Nuaimi said the loss of ISCI's chief peacemaker, Hakim, could lead to infighting.
Analysts cautioned that ISCI must take care to line up behind the new leader, whoever he may be, in the five months before what are sure to be fiercely contested elections.
"Anyone who sees ISCI as vulnerable will try to take its place," said Mohammed Abdul Jabar, a former Shi'ite politician who now edits a weekly magazine.
The leadership change at ISCI occurs at a turbulent moment in Iraq as the sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion fades but devastating bomb attacks pick up again.
Iraq regained its sovereignty when U.S. forces pulled out of urban centres in June, but a spate of bombings in recent weeks has undermined public confidence in local security forces.
The bombings, including two on August 19 that devastated the foreign and finance ministries and killed 95 people, also dealt a blow to Maliki's efforts before the January election to claim credit for a fall in overall violence.
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The overtly religious ISCI became a major political player in majority Shi'ite Iraq after the U.S. invasion ousted Sunni Muslim dictator Saddam Hussein. Continued...
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