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WORLD / Middle East
Clashes at Karbala festival kill 51
(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-29 06:40
BAGHDAD - Fighting erupted Tuesday between rival Shiite militias in
Karbala during a religious festival, claiming 51 lives and forcing
officials to abort the celebrations and order up to 1 million Shiite
pilgrims to leave the southern city.
Pilgrims lay in a hospital after being injured in clashes that broke out
in the streets of Shiite holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles)
south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. [AP]?
Security officials said Mahdi Army gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr fired on guards around two shrines protected by the Badr Brigade,
the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Residents of Karbala contacted by telephone said snipers were firing on
Iraqi security forces from rooftops. Explosions and the rattle of
automatic weapons fire could be heard during telephone calls to reporters
in the city 50 miles south of Baghdad.
In addition to the deaths, security officials said at least 247 people
were wounded, including women and children.
The clashes appeared to be part of a power struggle among Shiite groups
in the sect's southern Iraqi heartland, which includes the bulk of the
country's vast oil wealth.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said entrances
and exits to Karbala "have been secured and more forces are on the way
from other provinces." Officials said buses were sent to evacuate
pilgrims from the city, which includes some of the world's most sacred
Shiite shrines.
Gunfights also broke out Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and followers
of the Supreme Council in at least two Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad
and in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said.
Extra police took up positions in the center of another Shiite city,
Diwaniyah, after gunmen fired on a mosque associated with the Supreme
Council, police said. A curfew was clamped on the Shiite city of Najaf
after a mortar round exploded on a major square, causing no casualties,
officials said.
The trouble started in Karbala late Monday as tens of thousands of
Shiites were streaming into the city for the Shabaniyah festival marking
the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite imam who
disappeared in the 9th century. Devout Shiites believe he will return to
Earth to restore peace and harmony.
Scuffles broke out between police and pilgrims as the crowd tried to push
through the security checkpoints near the Imam al-Hussein mosque, the
focal point of the celebrations. At least five people were killed, police
said.
Early Tuesday, crowds of angry pilgrims chanting religious slogans surged
through the streets, attacking police and mosque guards, witnesses said.
Two ambulances were set ablaze, sending a huge column of black smoke over
the city.
Gunmen appeared, firing automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and
mortars at security forces and sending panicked pilgrims fleeing the
area, police and witnesses said.
A member of the city council said the center of town was in chaos, with
pilgrims running in all directions to escape the gunfire.
"We don't know what's going on," said the councilman, who wouldn't allow
use of his name for security reasons. "All we know is the huge numbers of
pilgrims were too much for the checkpoints to handle and now there is
shooting."
Some rounds struck fuel tanks on the roofs of three small hotels, setting
them ablaze, police said.
With the situation spiraling out of control, police ordered pilgrims out
of the center of the city, effectively canceling the celebrations which
were to reach their climax Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
"The area where they (the pilgrims) were gathering has been evacuated in
order to control those (criminals)," said Khalaf, the Interior Ministry
spokesman. He said the gunmen were gathering in three areas in the old
town and security forces were chasing them.
In Baghdad, a senior government security official blamed the fighting on
al-Sadr's followers, saying they provoked the confrontations Monday night
and were responsible for the shooting Tuesday. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity to avoid enflaming the situation.
Tensions have been rising in southern Iraq as rival Shiite groups
maneuver for power, especially in the oil-rich area around Basra, Iraq's
second-largest city.
Concern over Basra is mounting as British forces prepare to evacuate the
last of their forces from the city and redeploy to the airport 12 miles
to the north.
On Tuesday, Hakim al-Miyahi, head of the security committee of the Basra
municipal council, told The Associated Press that Iraqi forces were
incapable of maintaining order in the city once the British leave and
that the Baghdad government should send reinforcements.
"Some disorder will occur in the absence of British troops in Basra," he
said. "It will take at least two army divisions to fill the gap that will
be created by British troop withdrawal."
Elsewhere, hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters and
jet fighters killed 33 Sunni insurgents who were holding back the water
supply to the Shiite town of Khalis, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, the
U.S. command said.
The assault began before dawn Monday when a joint force was landed by
helicopter in the village of Gubbiya, 10 miles east of Khalis. The
assault force killed 13 fighters and attack aircraft killed 20 others,
the military said. The area is known to be controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq.
Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb exploded in northern Khalis, killing four
Iraqi soldiers, the Iraqi army said.
In Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, mourners buried 11 victims of a
mosque suicide bombing Monday. Ten people were wounded in the attack,
which police said targeted an anti-al-Qaida Sunni sheik.
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