BAGHDAD, Sept 1: Iraq got its first post-war cabinet on Monday as the funeral march for Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, killed in the Najaf car bomb massacre, continued its three-day journey towards the revered scholar’s final resting place.

A message purportedly from Saddam Hussein meanwhile denied that his supporters were involved in the attack on Friday that killed Hakim and at least 82 others.

And Najaf, the holy city still reeling after the deadly bombing, saw fresh violence on Monday when two people were killed in an assault on a house owned by an official of Saddam’s banned Baath party.

Iraq’s new cabinet is divided up among the country’s various communities, with 13 ministries going to Shia Muslims, five to Sunnis, five to Kurds, one to a Turkmeni and one to the Christians.

But it will have to report to the Governing Council, appointed late July by the US-led forces. Each ministry will continue to be supervised by a coalition-appointed advisor, most of whom are Americans. And Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, will retain overall authority in the country until an elected government is in place, a move scheduled for some time next year.

The key oil ministry goes to Ibrahim Mohammad Bahr al-Ulum and the interior minister post will be held by Nuri Badran. The foreign affairs portfolio will go to Hoshiar al-Zibari, while finance goes to Kamel al-Kailani.

All ministry buildings in Baghdad, with the exception of the oil ministry, protected from the start of the war by the Americans, were looted, burned or bombed. Many of them are structurally unsound and must be rebuilt.

Thousands, meanwhile, marched and waved black, red and green flags as the funeral procession for Ayatollah Hakim arrived in the city of Hilla after starting out from Baghad on Sunday.

Tens of thousands have turned out along the route in a collective outpouring of grief and anger for the murdered leader. He is due to be buried on Tuesday in Najaf.

Some mourners shouted anti-Saddam slogans while others railed against the American-led occupation.

A message purported to have come from the ousted Iraqi leader denied his supporters were behind the Najaf attack.

“The followers of the invaders and the infidel colonisers ... accused, without proof, the supporters of Saddam Hussein after the assassination of Hakim,” said the voice attributed to Saddam and broadcast on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television.

“They rushed to make accusations without any verification,” it said. The voice said the blast was “an erroneous act ... the details of which will be revealed in a just investigation carried out in future by the national authorities ... after the expulsion of the invaders and colonisers, which God willing will come very soon.”

US intelligence has deemed previous tapes allegedly from Saddam to be probably authentic as the former strongman continues to elude US forces.—AFP