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Asia Times Sep 2, 2003�Ayatollah's killing: Winners and losers: "No Shi'ite would dream of carrying out such blasphemous violence on the doorstep of the Imam Ali Shrine, the third most sacred site for Shi'ites after Mecca and Medina. Grand Ayatollah al-Hakim was the victim of an assassination - as was the UN's special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello. The hundreds of dead and wounded in the horrific Najaf massacre were just - to borrow Pentagon terminology - 'collateral damage'. Al-Hakim may have become another high-profile victim - like Vieira de Mello - of what Iraqis are now calling 'the Saddam network', which has already sabotaged oil pipelines and bombed the Jordanian embassy and the UN compound in Baghdad.

But what if this was the work of somebody else? European intelligence sources in Brussels tell Asia Times Online that ordinary Iraqis are becoming increasingly convinced the bombings are part of a sinister American conspiracy to plunge the country into total chaos and so force the UN to take responsibility for mopping-up operations, thus saving American face. Others blame Israel's Mossad, which infiltrated Iraq even before the invasion. Israel - with a history of political assassinations - would be the big loser in the event of an Islamic government coming to power in Iraq. Al-Hakim, a key political player, wanted a moderate, Shi'ite-led, Islamic regime for the country. "