AP News, February 23rd, 2007
The young black-turbaned cleric detained for nearly 12 hours Friday by U.S. troops comes from one of Iraq's most influential Shiite families and is being groomed for a major leadership role by his powerful father.
Amar al-Hakim, 35, was arrested along with his bodyguards about 9 a.m. shortly after he returned to Iraq from neighboring Iran. They were taken to a U.S. military facility in Kut, and the cleric was released about 8 p.m. The guards remained in custody, Shiite officials said.
Al-Hakim is being groomed by his father, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, as his successor at the helm of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, the country's largest Shiite political party and a main coalition partner in the Shiite-led government.
Like his father, the younger al-Hakim has close ties to Shiite-led Iran, where he and his family spent many years in exile before they returned home after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
SCIRI is believed to have the closest ties to Iran of any major Shiite political movement _ and ironically works closely with the Americans in Iraq. SCIRI was founded in Iran in 1982 by Iraqi Shiite exiles, and its armed wing fought alongside Iranian forces in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.
Amar al-Hakim, the eldest of four children, studied at a Shiite seminary in the Iranian holy city of Qom. Since his return to Iraq, he often travels through the Shiite south and speaks at Shiite religious ceremonies.
He established a charity organization, the Foundation of the Martyr of the Altar, in memory of his uncle and father-in-law, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was assassinated in a massive bombing in Najaf in August 2003.
An accomplished public speaker, Amar al-Hakim spends much of his time visiting economic development projects which his charity funds and speaking to Shiite social activists.
The 2003 assassination propelled Amar al-Hakim's father into the leadership of SCIRI, continuing a long family tradition of leadership in the majority Shiite community.
