Page "Najaf" Paragraph 23

On August 29, 2003 a car bomb exploded during prayers outside the Imām Alī Mosque just as weekly prayers were ending.

More than 80 people were killed, including the influential cleric Ayatollah Sayyid Muħammad Bāqir al-Ħakīm, the Shīia leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq ( SCIRI ).

Dozens of others were injured.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack-Saddam himself, in hiding at the time, denied any involvement in a taped message.