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Iraqi mass media endeavors to calm nation after deadly bomb blast

IRNA

Ilam, Aug 31, IRNA -- Iraqi mass media tries to contribute to efforts 
to restore calm in the society after a bomb blast killed or injured 
a large number of people including top Shiite cleric Ayatollah 
Mohammad Baqer Hakim. 
Prominent and popular figures were invited to give live TV 
interviews as part of attempts to bring calm to the war-shattered 
nation now facing fresh wave of violence and killings. 
Commentators appeared dressed in black encouraging the masses to 
cooperate to calm the nation after the explosions. 
The TV programs included mainly the repeated recitation of the 
verses of holy Qoran which are also a sign of mourning on a bitter 
occasion. 
Iraq TV shows scenes of the life of Ayatollah Hakim with analysts 
and world leaders condemning the Friday car bomb blast in the holy 
city of Najaf in which over a hundred people were killed. 
Masses are shown in grief and sorrow over the sad demise of 
religious leader Ayatollah Hakim and the loss of many other innocent 
lives in the blast. 
Ayatollah Hakim who was the head of the Supreme Assembly of the 
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), was killed in a car bomb explosion
in the Iraqi city of Najaf when he was returning from Friday prayers 
which he himself had led. 
Hakim, who spent some 20 years in exile in Iran before returning 
in triumph to Iraq earlier this year, met a martyr`s fate along with 
his bodyguards. 
On August 29, Seyed Abdel Aziz Hakim, a member of the Iraqi 
Governing Council, said the loyalists to the ex-regime of Iraq were 
behind the killing of the SAIRI chief Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Hakim. 
He vowed that the devotees to the martyred major Shia cleric would
follow his path. 
HB/214 
End