Bomb Found in Home of al-Hakim

On Monday, a bomb was found in the home of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite cleric who is December's president of the Interim Governing Council, according to AFP.. He is also the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. For many years he headed the paramilitary of SCIRI, the Badr Corps, which was targeted with a bomb late last week. A relative of his, Muhannad al-Hakim, was assassinated in Baghdad recently. His brother, previous leader of SCIRI, was killed in a huge car bomb explosion on August 29.

Az-Zaman/ AFP also reported that Najaf police discovered a small artillery piece aimed toward the HQ of SCIRI, which constitute al-Hakim's offices. They carted it away, but were unable to make any arrests in the incident.

Meanwhile, AFP reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani finally met on Monday with a delegation from the Arab League, after having appeared to snub them the day before. He is said to have welcomed the involvement of the Arab League in the move toward restoration of Iraqi sovereignty. (In fact, Sistani has been calling rather for a United Nations role in this process. For Iraqi Shiites, the Arab League is tainted by a tendency to collaborate with Saddam and to oppose his overthrow, and by its overwhelmingly Sunni character.)