Attempt to bomb Imam al-Kadhim’s shrine foiled

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Security forces on Saturday defused an explosive device found inside the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim in Baghdad’s al-Karkh area, the Iraqi minister of interior said on Saturday. “The device, which was in the form of a religious book, was safely defused by the security forces,” the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV quoted Minister Jawad al-Bulani as saying. The minister did not provide further details. Imam Musa al-Kadhim, (Seventh of Safar, 128 AH- Twenty-fifth of Rajab, 183 AH) (Approximately: October 28, 746 AD-September 1, 799 AD), the seventh of the Twelver Shiite Imams. Imam Kadhim was the son of the sixth Shiite Imam, Ja’far al-Sadiq, and his mother’s name was Hamida Khatoon. He was born during the power struggles between the Umayyad and the Abbasid dynasties. In 795, Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoned Musa al-Kadhim. Four years later, he ordered Sindi ibn Shahiq to poison him. He died in a prison in Baghdad in 799 and was buried in Baghdad’s al-Karkh district in an area named after him: al-Kadhimiya. A stampede on Jisr al-Aiema (Bridge of Imams), leading to the tomb of Imam Kadhim in the town in 2005 killed more than 1,000 people and wounded 300 others, also causing part of the bridge to collapse. SS (S) 1