Iran-Iraq

Iraqi Shiite leader Hakim mourned by Iran

Article published on the 2009-08-27 Latest update 2009-08-27 09:59 TU

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim in hospital, May 2007
(Photo: Reuters)

Hundreds of Iranians gathered at the Iraqi embassy in Tehran on Thursday to express their grief at the death of Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the former Iraqi Shiite resistance group, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. Hakim died on Wednesday from cancer.

Crowds gathered in the Iranian capital, Tehran on Thursday, to mourn Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim. Hakim died from lung cancer that had been diagnosed more than two years ago.

In a message to the mourning ceremony, The Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei praised Hakim as a symbol of the struggle against the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

"Death to America. Death to Israel," chanted mourners as they carried Hazim's coffin towards Qom, Iran's Shiite clerical capital.

His body is due to be flown to Iraq later on Thursday to be buried in the city of Najaf.

In 1982, Hakim created an opposition movement in Iran, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council to fight Saddam Hussein’s regime which had led a war against Iran from 1980 to 1988.

He also travelled to Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion in Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime.