An alleged al-Qaida militant was executed for his role in one of the first and bloodiest bombings in Iraq, a 2003 blast that killed Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and 84 other people, a Justice Ministry official said Friday. The militant, Oras Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, was executed by hanging Tuesday in Baghdad after being sentenced to death in October, ministry Undersecretary Busho Ibrahim told the Associated Press.
The execution announcement was the first word that a suspect had been tried in the al-Hakim killing. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack - a huge car bomb in August 2003 that went off outside the Shrine of Ali in Najaf, one of Shiite Islam's holist sites - and killed al-Hakim. |