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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Clerics-Killed.html
Crowd Kills Two Islamic Clerics in Iraq
(New York Times) A furious crowd hacked to death two clerics during a melee Thursday at one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, witnesses said, at a meeting meant to serve as a model for reconciliation in post-Saddam Iraq. One of the clerics killed, Haider al-Kadar, was a widely hated loyalist of Saddam Hussein, part of the Iraqi leader's ministry of religion. The other was Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of one of the religion's most prominent ayatollahs, who was persecuted by Saddam. Al-Khoei had urged cooperation with U.S. troops. It appeared that when the two men appeared at the shrine, members of another faction loyal to a different mullah, Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, were furious at al-Kadar's presence. Both men were rushed by the crowd and hacked to death with swords and knives.