IRAQ: Shiite leader Hakim returns from exile in Iran

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

BAGHDAD, May 10 2003 (IPS) - Iraqi Shiite leader Mohammed Baqir Hakim returned to Iraq today after 23 years of exile in Iran.

Hakim arrived in the city of Shalmjah, to the north of Basra in southern Iraq, to the welcome of thousands of his supporters.

Hakim is a member of – the council of five" which also comprises the Iraqi National Congress (INC), led by Ahmed Chalabi, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talibani, Mas’oud Barazani’s Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK) and the Iraqi National Reconciliation group led by Iyad Allawi.