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   	Islamic peace motives:Police: 4 arrested   
    in Najaf bombing, all have ties to al-Qaida   
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   Police: 4 arrested in Najaf bombing, all have ties to al-Qaida   
   at 11:06 on August 30, 2003, EST.   
      
   Iraqis protest against the killing of Iraqi Shiite cleric Ayatollah   
   Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and others in Baghdad Saturday. (AP/Samir Mezban)   
      
   NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection   
   with the bombing of Iraq's most holy Shiite Muslim shrine, and all have   
   links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, a senior police   
   official told The Associated Press on Saturday.   
      
   The official, who said the death toll in the Friday bombing had risen to   
   107, said the four arrested men - two Iraqis and two Saudis - were   
   caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.   
      
   The blast also killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq,   
   Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been co-operating with the   
   American occupation force.   
      
   On Saturday, 4,000 mourners chanted for vengeance in Najaf. In Baghdad,   
   about 3,000 Shiites protested at the gates of the U.S.-led Coalition   
   headquarters, complaining that the coalition's failure to provide   
   security led to al-Hakim's death.   
      
   U.S. military helicopters hovered low overhead, but the demonstrators   
   dispersed peacefully after an hour.   
      
   The police official, who lead the initial investigation and   
   interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to   
   kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations   
   such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.   
      
   The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was   
   made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the   
   UN headquarters in Baghdad, in which at least 23 people died, and the   
   Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.   
      
   The FBI said the UN bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from   
   the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it produced in the former Soviet   
   Union.   
      
   The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the   
   recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that   
   police and American forces are unable to focus attention on the   
   country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are   
   said to be infiltrating.   
      
   The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were   
   staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.   
      
   American officials believe militants from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran   
   are infiltrating Iraq to attack Western interests. U.S. President George   
   W. Bush said earlier this month that more foreign "al-Qaida-type   
   fighters" have moved in.   
      
   Last week, a shadowy group that takes its name from the alias of   
   Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden's top deputy, claimed responsibility for   
   the UN bombing.   
      
   The Abu Hafs el-Masri Brigades - one of three groups to claim   
   responsibility for the attack - made its claim on a Web site, but U.S.   
   officials said they could not authenticate it and it remained unclear if   
   the group exists or has any link to al-Qaida. Atef himself was killed in   
   a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan in November 2001.   
      
   In Baghdad, 150 UN employees held a sombre memorial service on Saturday   
   to remember their colleagues killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of the UN office.   
      
   Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as   
   they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing in Najaf.   
      
   "Our leader al-Hakim is gone. We want the blood of the killers of   
   al-Hakim," a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.   
      
   The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an   
   increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a   
   stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite   
   majority to be patient with the United States.   
      
   Al-Hakim was the spiritual leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic   
   Revolution in Iraq. In Baghdad Saturday, a member of the group's   
   politburo, Ali al-Ghadban, said the bombing would not deter it from   
   co-operating with the Americans.   
      
   "We will continue in our dealing with the Americans, but the Americans   
   should now be more aware of the fact that the Iraqis only are capable of   
   preserving the security in the country," al-Ghadban said.   
      
   "They (the Americans) are responsible for the incident because of their   
   failure to provide security in Iraq." He said the group would press the   
   Americans for more powers for Iraqis.   
      
   L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's co-ordinator for Iraq, was out of   
   the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the   
   bombing.   
      
   While many here blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of   
   Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well.   
      
   Najaf, 180 kilometres southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of   
   Iraq's most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand   
   Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and   
   Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiites make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population.   
      
   Also Saturday, a U.S. soldier was in critical condition after his Humvee   
   plunged into a canal during preparations for a raid on the outskirts of   
   al-Abbarah, about 80 kilometres north of Baghdad, the military said.   
      
   During the raid, dozens of soldiers supported by tanks and helicopters   
   stormed seven houses and detained three men, including two suspected   
   officials from Saddam's regime, said Lt.-Col. Mark Young, commander of   
   3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.   
      
   TAREK AL-ISSAWI   
      
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