At Heart of Iraqi Impasse, a Family Feud

Both Sadr and Hakim owe their strength to a mix of religious legitimacy and impeccable bloodlines. Both wear the black turban that signifies their status as putative descendants of the prophet Muhammad.

Sadr lost brothers, an uncle and his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, at the hands of Hussein's Sunni-dominated security forces. Hakim says more than 60 family members were killed in recent decades -- including his brother, former Supreme Council leader Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, who was obliterated by a car bomb outside Najaf's Imam Ali shrine in 2003. In the past half-century, members of both families have held the revered rank of grand ayatollah, the top position in Najaf's Shiite religious hierarchy.

"There is a great role for these families in the history of Shiite Iraq because of the stands they have taken for the people and the price they have paid," Amar al-Hakim, 36, said in an interview in an office across the street from a large shrine commemorating the killing of his uncle, Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim.

Leaders in both camps are quick to point out that stereotypes of the two Shiite factions have not always held true. While Sadr and his father were heroes to Iraq's working class, Sadr's grandfather was known for his religious scholarship. The two families are also intertwined by marriage: Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's wife is a cousin of Moqtada al-Sadr.

The dispute over Jafari "is not really about families. It is about different ideas for Iraq," said Amar Hakim, citing the Supreme Council's push to form an autonomous state in mostly Shiite southern Iraq. Sadr's followers fear such a move would split the country apart.

While his bloodlines are unquestioned, Sadr, in his early thirties, lacks the seminary training and polish of a top cleric. He draws followers from the Shiite underclass, whose speech patterns are echoed in his own. His base is concentrated in the teeming Baghdad slum of Sadr City, named for his father, where up to 10 percent of Iraq's population lives. His main mosque is in Kufa, a poorer city adjoining Najaf.

Following the model of the Lebanese party and guerrilla movement Hezbollah, Sadr has won support by catering to the needy and maintaining a force of men with guns. His satellite offices across the country have become first stops for Shiites evicted from their neighborhoods in mounting sectarian violence.

In Kufa last week, members of his God's Martyr Foundation were operating a squalid halfway house for displaced Shiites in an abandoned hotel, providing protection and doling out food to 51 families.

"We are all here under his protection," said Iptihal Abbas, who arrived with four children of male family members who were killed by gunmen in the Shiite town of Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. "Everyone else ignored us, including the government and the Americans."

While also operating charitable organizations, the Supreme Council is a more modern political movement, with a satellite television channel and an unmatched grass-roots organization and cultural programs overseen by Amar Hakim, who made a widely publicized visit to the United States last year.

"We have 80 offices from Basra to Sulaymaniyah," he said. "We have 1,000 mosques in Iraq and 5,000 clergymen linked to us. We have 1,500 women activists. We have educational foundations, schools and charities."

The marjiya , a council of senior Shiite clerics based in Najaf, has urged the two sides to mend the rift that has dominated Iraqi politics since the U.S. invasion. And on Tuesday, a senior aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential cleric in Iraq, said patience with Shiite politicians was wearing thin.

"The ones harmed by this delay are the Iraqi people. . . . The Green Zone is soothing, and the Iraqi street is another thing," said the aide, Ahmed al-Safi, referring to the fortified section of Baghdad that houses the Iraqi and American military leaderships. "When the marjiya order or give signals, you should understand it. The marjiya might be forced to be involved more. The marjiya have made it clear on several occasions the importance of speeding up the formation of a government."

But concern is mounting across southern Iraq that if Jafari is pushed aside, the Mahdi Army will occupy the streets. Last August, after Sadr's Najaf office was burned by a mob, his followers blamed the Supreme Council's Badr Brigade. The next day, the Mahdi Army attacked Badr offices across the south before Sadr and Hakim called for calm. Both sides have in recent days asked supporters to maintain order regardless of who is named prime minister, but aides have said they would not rule out armed unrest.

"It is not our official policy," said Amiry, of the Sadr foundation. "But maybe some people will express their stance that way."

Special correspondents Saad Sarhan and Saad al-Izzi in Najaf contributed to this report.