Ö§âmâ ßíñ këñoßí

You cannot defeat Saddam, he has the magic stone of Haram bin Zonah
al-Kosefil the Archmagi which lets him see the future so that he can
always remain one step ahead of the foolish Cru$aders...

Two Explosions Shake Central Baghdad
Explosions Shake Central Baghdad; Two U.S. Soldiers Killed Elsewhere
by Roadside Bomb
The Associated Press

Two huge explosions rocked central Baghdad on Tuesday, and a roadside
bomb in southern Iraq killed two U.S. soldiers. In the holy city of
Najaf, the son of a slain religious leader warned Iraq was entering a
dangerous new period.

The Al-Jazeera television network said the bombs in Baghdad were near
the al-Rasafa police station not far from the Iraqi Interior Ministry
building.

Al-Jazeera said there were as many as 10 people injured and many cars
had been destroyed. The Qatar-based satellite broadcaster said the
bombs were place in a park near the police station and that the police
building was not seriously damaged.

On Monday, two soldiers from the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion of the 20th
Military Police Brigade were killed when a bomb went off beside their
convoy in southern Iraq. Another soldier was wounded.

The U.S. military provided no other details. In all, 282 U.S. soldiers
have died in the Iraq war, 147 of that number since the end of heavy
fighting.

On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of mourners streamed into the holy
city of Najaf for the funeral of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a
moderate cleric killed in a bombing on Friday.

Guards in white robes and dark uniforms stood every few yards along
the roof of Najaf's golden, domed Imam Ali shrine. Black banners of
mourning were d****d across the mosque.

The shrine on Friday became the site of the country's bloodiest attack
since the fall of Saddam Hussein. There are varying accounts of how
many other people died, ranging from more than 80 to more than 120.

"My believing brothers, the sons of Iraq, our injured Iraq is facing
great and dangerous challenges in which one requires strength," the
ayatollah's son, Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Saeed Al-Hakim said as the
funeral procession made one of its final stops before Najaf in the
town of Hilla.

"I call on you to hold on to this unity and help each other ...
(through this) new period," he said.

The funeral procession started in Baghdad on Sunday and wove its way
through Hilla and the second holiest city of Karbala before nearing
Najaf for the funeral ceremony.

Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida, has denied any
role in the Najaf bombing, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite
television station reported.

A presenter only paraphrased the denial, which was attributed to the
group's spiritual leader, Mullah Krekar. Krekar did not appear on the
screen and was not directly quoted.

The report further muddled the issue of who could have perpetrated the
attack.

The CIA said Monday it was examining a audiotape recording in which a
man claiming to be Saddam denied he was behind the Najaf bombing.
Al-Hakim was a longtime opponent of Saddam who returned from exile
after the U.S. invasion.

The voice on the tape appeared to be that of Saddam and employed his
well-known rhetorical flourishes.

"Many of you may have heard the snakes hissing, the servants of the
invaders, occupiers, infidels, and how they have managed to accuse the
followers of Saddam Hussein of responsibility for the attack on
al-Hakim without any evidence," said the tape, broadcast by the
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station and the Lebanese
Broadcasting Corp.

"They rushed to accuse before investigating," the voice said.

While denying a role in the Najaf bombing, the voice made no mention
of the Jordanian Embassy bombing on Aug. 7 or the U.N. headquarters
attack 12 days later, which investigators suspect may have also been
committed by Saddam followers.

Some Iraqi police officials leading the investigation of the bombing
have said they believe al-Qaida linked Islamic militants were behind
the Najaf attack not Saddam loyalists. The FBI said it would help
investigate the bombing after receiving a request from local
officials.

Iraq's 25-member Governing Council on Monday announced a Cabinet that
mirrored exactly the council's ethnic and religious breakdown with 13
Shiites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds (also Sunnis), one ethnic Turk
and an Assyrian Christian.

The Information Ministry, which became famous for its distorted
accounts of the war, has been abolished.

The council, formed July 13, had been promising for weeks that it
would name a government. It was unclear what delayed announcing the
Cabinet, but several council members had spent much time after their
appointment on trips throughout the world seeking recognition for the
body as the legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, has said an
election for a new government could take place as early as the end of
2004 after the adoption of a new constitution.

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acharya

Saddam is the prince of darkness. He gains strength from chaos, death, and
terror. But such a religion cannot last. Light shall prevail over darkness.