Ayatollah al-Hakim was killed in a car bomb attack in the Iraqi city of Najaf on August 29, 2003. The car bomb exploded as the ayatollah was leaving a religious shrine in the city, just after Friday prayers. At present, no group has admitted responsibility for the attack, although it is thought to be related to a power struggle within the Hawza, the Shi'a Muslim authority in Najaf.
SCIRI is based in the Shi'a-majority southern Iraq.