Mr. Khoei, accompanied by at least two former Iraqi Army officers, had been flown into the country from London by the American military on April 3. He was taken to this Islamic holy city by United States Army Special Forces hoping to win support among the country's Shiite majority, Army officers said today.

He was killed along with Haidar al-Refaei, the hereditary custodian of the mosque, when an angry mob attacked them. Four other men were also reported killed in the melee.

Many people interviewed here insist that Mr. Khoei's murder was a spontaneous act, set off by the presence of Mr. Refaei, who had long collaborated with the government of Saddam Hussein. But others suggested that the murder was part of a broader power struggle between clerics vying for control of Najaf after Mr. Hussein's fall from power.

That power struggle extends to the United States and Iran, both of which want influence over Iraq's Shiite population. Iranian influence in the city is already strong.

"Our true, real leader is Bakr al-Hakim*," Abu Jafaar, a 22-year-old engineer, exclaimed Friday near the Imam Ali Mosque. He was referring to the Tehran-based leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution In Iraq.

He called Mr. Khoei an "infidel," who had stolen money from a seminary in Najaf to set up his charitable foundation in London. "You know when they stabbed him, thousands of dollars were found on his body hidden under his robe," Mr. Jafaar said...

...If Iraq is eventually to have a democratically elected government, analysts say it is critical for Washington that the Shiite majority be closer to the United States than to Iran, which has been ruled by Shiite clergy since the Islamic Revolution there overthrew the shah in 1979.