Al-Hakim’s funeral procession heads toward final stretch

The procession started to wind down the road from the Kufah mosque toward the Shiite holy city of Najaf 15 kilometres away as a sea of male mourners thumped their chests in unison and wailed laments for Hakim. Red flags, symbolic of Hussein, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Mohammad, and green banners, symbolising the Koran, were waved everywhere. The road linking the twin holy Islamic cities was roped off by legions of Iraqi security guards on the look out for new attacks as the procession wound its way down to Kufah.