Iranians mourn Iraqi Shi'ite leader al-Hakim

TEHERAN: Thousands of Iranians prayed and wept yesterday during a memorial for Iraqi Shi'ite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim in the start of mourning that will encompass Shi'ites in both Iran and Iraq, a sign of the key power-broker's network of influences and alliances.

Al-Hakim spent two decades in exile in Iran, which backed his guerrilla force fighting Saddam Hussein's rule. After Saddam's fall in 2003, he returned to his homeland to become leader of Iraq's biggest Shi'ite party and a symbol of the resurgence of Iraq's Shi'ite majority. But many in Iraq remained deeply suspicious of his close ties to Iran.

The ceremony for al-Hakim, who died on Wednesday in Teheran of lung cancer, was attended by many Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.