Funeral march for Shiite leader draws 300,000

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Beating their chests and calling for revenge, more than 300,000 Muslims began a two-day, 110-mile march Sunday to the holy city of Najaf to mourn a cherished Shiite leader assassinated in a car bombing.\nThe U.S. military reported that 125 people died in the attack on the Imam Ali mosque, a dramatic increase from earlier hospital reports of 85.\nThe faithful crowd followed a flatbed truck carrying a symbolic coffin for Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, a moderate cleric and Saddam Hussein opponent. Authorities said they could only find al-Hakim's hand, watch, wedding band and pen in the wreckage.\nAl-Hakim had only returned in May from exile in Iran. While backing the formation of an Islamic state in Iraq, he had also urged unity among rival Shiite factions and tolerance of the American-led coalition. \n"Our revenge will be severe on the killers," read one of the many banners carried by mourners. Red and white roses were laid on the coffin and a large portrait of al-Hakim was placed in front of it.\nThe Iraqi police handling the investigation into Friday's bombing say they have arrested 19 men -- many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to al Qaeda -- in connection with the blast.\nHowever, many Shiites blame the cleric's death on Saddam loyalists and the U.S.-led coalition, which they say has failed to provide adequate security in the country since the dictator's fall.\nIn Najaf, Maj. Rick Hall, spokesman for the 1st Batallion, 7th Marines said the death toll now stood at 125 with 142 wounded, some seriously. He also said the Marine transfer of the south-central territory including Najaf to an international force lead by Poland, set for this week, had been put on hold.\n"We now want to stay here and assist as much as possible," Hall said. U.S. forces are questioning two men handed over by the Iraqis but will likely release them, he said.\nHall said the involvement of al Qaeda members in the Friday explosion was "an option we are looking at."\nBut American authorities have not taken an active public role in the mosque investigation because of Iraqi sensitivity to any non-Muslim or U.S. presence at the Najaf shrine.\nHall denied reports that the Marines would patrol around the Imam Ali shrine, which is the most sacred Shiite shrine in Iraq and the third holiest in the world after Mecca and Medina.\nHe said U.S. forces had offered Marine patrols to the interim Governing Council in Baghdad and religious leaders in Najaf. An answer was expected in a day or two, he said.\nAs the mass of mourners left Baghdad, the people carried angry banners denouncing both Saddam and the U.S. president. "Saddam and Bush will not humiliate us," one read.\nThe procession began at the al-Kadhimiyah shrine, a sacred Shiite site in the capital, and was expected to grow as it wove its way south. The marchers were to stop at holy sites in Karbala before arriving at the Najaf mosque for the funeral Tuesday.\nPolice detained two Iraqis and two Saudis shortly after the Friday attack, and they provided information leading to the arrest of 15 other suspects, said a senior police official in Najaf, speaking on condition of anonymity.\nTwo Kuwaitis and six Palestinians with Jordanian passports were among the suspects, the official said. The remainder were Iraqis and Saudis, the official said, without giving a breakdown.\nThe men arrested claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos, police said. The Najaf police official, who led the interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners described plots to assassinate political and religious leaders and to damage power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.\nInitial information shows the foreigners entered Iraq from neighboring Kuwait, Syria and Jordan, the official said, adding that they belong to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam.\n"They are all connected to al Qaeda," the official said.\nWahhabism is the strict, fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam from which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden draws spiritual direction. Based in Saudi Arabia, its followers show little tolerance for non-Wahhabi Sunnis and Shiites.\nHall said American forces have had no access to those in Iraqi police custody, but said he had heard numbers ranging from nine to 19.\nPolice said there were similarities between the mosque bombing and two recent attacks.\nThe bomb at the Imam Ali Shrine -- the burial place of the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad -- was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 truck bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 23 people, and the Jordanian Embassy vehicle bombing Aug. 7, which killed 19, the Iraqi official said.\nThe bombing in Najaf added urgency to U.S. plans to create a 7,500-strong Iraqi militia to take over civil defense of the country's cities. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, announced plans to create the new militia, called the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, on July 21.\nA day before the bombing, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said mobilizing the Iraqi militia -- rather than bringing in more American or coalition troops to Iraq -- was the key to stabilizing security.\n"America must reach out to its friends and allies in Iraq to share the burden of defeating Saddam once and for all," Ahmad Chalabi, Iraqi National Congress leader and member of the U.S.-chosen interim Governing Council wrote in Sunday's Washington Post.\n"You have the firepower and mobility, we have the local knowledge and intelligence. Only if we work as true partners will we achieve the victory that is so vital to both our countries," he wrote.\nFor some Governing Council members, that partnership is developing too slowly. In response to the bombing, a highly respected Shiite cleric suspended his membership in the council, citing a lack of security.\nMohammed Bahr al-Uloum, in exile in London until Saddam's ouster, said Saturday that his return to the council depended on the U.S.-led coalition's handing security matters to Iraqis, so that Muslim shrines could be under Islamic protection.