Iraqi Shiites Flex Muscle Even as They Mourn
by Neil MacFarquhar

The funeral cortege for the slain Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim crawled south from Baghdad today in a tumultuous cavalcade freighted with both political and religious symbolism, with Iraq's Shiite Muslims determined to assert their importance even as one of their most significant voices has been stilled. The United States Central Command said, meanwhile, that it would postpone turning over control of the area around Najaf to Polish-led forces following the bombing last week at the city's holiest shrine that killed Ayatollah Hakim.
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