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| | CNN.com - Crowds for Iraq ayatollah's return - May. 11, 2003 |
 | | Hakim, who was jailed and tortured in the 1970s for opposing former Iraqi ruler Saddam, has said he will perform whatever role the Iraqi people wished of him and that he favors a democratically elected, broad-based coalition government. |
 | | Hakim commands a militia called the Badr Corps, armed by Iran, of some 4,000 to 8,000 people. |
 | | After his stay in Basra, Hakim is scheduled to head to the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, one of the most important for Iraq's Shiite majority and a center of clerical learning. |
| edition.cnn.com /2003/WORLD/meast/05/10/sprj.nitop.hakim (721 words) |
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