Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim

Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Muhsin al-Hakim at-Tabataba'i (8 July 1939 – 29 August 2003; ), also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia Islamic scholar and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Al-Hakim was a contemporary of Ayatollah Khomeini, and The Guardian compared the two in terms of their times in exile and their support in their respective homelands. and Fawzieh Hassan Bazzi. Al-Hakim was the uncle of Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim. Al-Hakim's father was a senior cleric in Najaf. intent on securing a new ally against Saddam Hussein. This incident prompted the Baathist government to arrest Baqir Al-Hakim, he was subsequently imprisoned and tortured.

However, his sentence was commuted and he was released in July 1979.

Badr Brigades

The Badr Brigades were the military wing of SCIRI until 2003.

Return to Iraq

Al-Hakim returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003 following the overthrow of Saddam's regime by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq after spending more than two decades of exile in neighboring Iran.

Assassination

Al-Hakim was killed on 29 August 2003, when a car bomb exploded as he left the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. The blast killed at least 84 others; some estimate that as many as 125 died in the bombing. Fifteen bodyguards of al-Hakim were among the people killed in the blast.

Perpetrators

On 30 August 2003, Iraqi authorities arrested four people in connection with the bombing: two former members of the Ba'ath Party from Basra, and two non-Iraqi Arab Salafis.

According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was responsible for Hakim's assassination. They claim that Abu Omar al-Kurdi, a top Zarqawi bombmaker who was captured in January 2005, confessed to carrying out this bombing.

Funeral

Hundreds of thousands of people attended his funeral in Najaf and showed their hatred of the US military occupation on 2 September 2003. They protested the US forces and demanded their withdrawal from Iraq.

His grave was petrol-bombed by anti-government protesters during the 2019 Iraqi protests.