Iraq girds for Shi'ite pilgrims

BAGHDAD -- Tens of thousands of Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims headed to a shrine city south of the capital yesterday amid heavy security as the daily toll of casualties mounted in a sectarian war without respite.

No major attacks were reported yesterday against the multitudes of Shi'ites destined for the holy city of Karbala, where today they will celebrate the birthday of a revered imam who disappeared more than a millennium ago.

But, even on a relatively quiet day in the capital, authorities reported finding 14 bodies in various neighborhoods, all handcuffed, blindfolded, and killed execution-style in the trademark fashion that has come to characterize the raging internecine conflict. Most of the victims were shot in the head.

Also in the capital, a roadside bomb targeting police killed three civilians and wounded three law officers in east Baghdad, a largely Shi'ite area. Blasts from mortar shells left two other civilians dead in a Shi'ite district of southern Baghdad, and gunmen killed at least three others in various incidents, authorities reported.

Baghdad, traditionally a mixed city of Shi'ites, Sunnis, Christians, and others, has become the prime killing grounds of the sectarian conflict that authorities say leaves as many as 100 Iraqis dead each day.

Tens of thousands have reportedly fled to neighborhoods where their sects predominate and armed militias provide some measure of safety.

Despite the presence in Iraq of about 145,000 US troops, the highest figure in months, authorities have been unable to stanch the bloodshed as the Shi'ite-led government tries to maintain some sense of order amid the daily carnage.

Thousands of Iraqi police, soldiers, and volunteers sealed off Karbala, about 50 miles south of the capital, as officials feared a repeat of past attacks on masses of Shi'ite pilgrims, whose boisterous marches often are viewed as a provocation in the rival Sunni Muslim community. Vehicles, cellphones, and weapons were banned from the city, and everyone was subject to search.

News agencies reported that mortar rounds aimed at Shi'ites en route to Karbala killed at least three pilgrims in the city of Musayyib, about 35 miles south of Baghdad. But provincial authorities said the dead were local residents killed when mortar blasts targeting a police station went astray in a violent, mixed-population strip south of the capital.

The pilgrims, whose numbers are expected to top 1 million, are paying homage to a hallowed Shi'ite figure known as the Mahdi. According to their belief, the Mahdi will return some day in Christ-like fashion to save the faithful.

Karbala, with its two magnificent, gold-domed shrines, is one of the jewels of the Shi'ite world and has been the site of numerous attacks targeting pilgrims, including multiple suicide bombings during a religious celebration in spring 2004 that left 130 worshipers dead and hundreds injured.

``Our forces have tightened their control on the ground and our only concern now is rockets launched from a far distance," said Major General Samir Abdullah of the Iraqi Army.

The festival commemorates the birthday of Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, a ninth- century religious leader. Many walk to Karbala from across Iraq.

On Monday, Iraqi soldiers clashed with gunmen near Karbala during an operation to secure the area, leaving 14 militants and one Iraqi soldier dead, the prime minister's office said. Last week, 13 Pakistani and Indian Shi'ite pilgrims and their Iraqi driver were ambushed and killed en route to the city.

Coalition authorities yesterday announced the deaths of two soldiers: an American and a Briton.

The US soldier was killed yesterday by a roadside bomb explosion south of Baghdad. The British soldier died Thursday of wounds sustained earlier in the week when his patrol came under fire in Qurnah, about 35 miles north of Basra.

In other violence, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in Baghdad killed two people and wounded six, police said. A roadside bomb also struck an Iraqi Army convoy near Karmah, killing four Iraqi soldiers.

Four bodies, all shot in the head and bound to each other with a chain, were found on a river bank 40 miles southwest of the capital.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.