At least 50 killed as Shi'ite militias clash

NAJAF, Iraq -- Shi'ite militias attacked each other in Karbala yesterday, killing more than 50 people in gunfights, setting fire to three hotels, and forcing authorities to scuttle a religious festival by ordering a million celebrants to leave the holy city where they had gathered.

More than 200 others were injured in the panic that ensued when Mahdi Army militia members loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr battled the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

The death toll threatened to climb, with witnesses reporting dozens of bodies still slumped on the streets surrounding the Imam Hussein shrine and amid the smoldering rubble of the three nearby buildings set fire during the rampage.

The two Shi'ite militias have been waging an increasingly deadly battle for control of southern Iraq's most important cities and its abundant oil resources. The southern city of Basra, the wealthiest oil venue in Iraq, is about to be handed over to Iraqi forces by British troops, which has accelerated clashes between the Mahdi and Badr militias as they jockey for power in the region in the absence of any functional central government.

The latest confrontation occurred in the midst of the annual Shi'ite Muslim pilgrimage to Karbala that was due to have culminated in prayers and festivities last night and today in commemoration of the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, one of the Shi'ite faith's 12 revered imams. The curfews and evacuation order scuttled the highlight of the ritual in honor of the ninth-century prophet who disappeared, and according to Shi'ite belief, will return one day to usher in an era of peace.

The majority Shi'ite population has had new freedom to participate in pilgrimages and other religious activities since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated government had oppressed Shi'ites. But some of the mass activities have been marred by attacks by the Sunni community and, in this case, by fighting between rival Shi'ite groups, which have been battling for political supremacy as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government founders amid accusations of incompetence and sectarianism.

Sadr's political movement has been boycotting the government, and the Supreme Council's top figure in the national leadership, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, has been speculated to be a potential successor to Maliki should he resign or the parliament oust him.

Witnesses reported that the battling this week began with Mahdi Army gunmen hurling rocks, bricks, and knives at local police, and quickly escalated into an exchange of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire.

Iraqi authorities ordered a curfew for the besieged city 50 miles south of Baghdad as well as for Najaf and Hillah, other Badr strongholds on the route back to Baghdad, and sent buses to begin evacuating pilgrims.

The Pentagon has sent nearly 30,000 additional US troops to Iraq over the past six months, but civilian deaths from sectarian fighting, assassinations, and militia power struggles have continued. The violence has thwarted US aims of turning over responsibility for security to the Iraqi government, whose police and army ranks are often overwhelmed, or infiltrated, by militias.

The violence convulsing Karbala had killed 51 and injured 206 by nightfall, said an Interior Ministry official who asked not to be named. It was not clear if that figure included 11 people killed over the previous two days as pilgrims made their way to Karbala along roads teeming with snipers. Four pilgrims died in the first gun battle near the shrine late Monday.

Intra-Shi'ite fighting spread to Baghdad by last evening, when gunmen believed to be from the Mahdi militia attacked at least four offices of rival political factions. US troops in armored vehicles deployed to the scenes and secured the areas, Baghdad police reported.

Americans also surrounded one of Baghdad's top hotels, the Ishtar Sheraton, in what police and hotel personnel said was an operation in search of Iranians suspected of weapons smuggling.

Videotape shot by Associated Press Television news showed US troops leading about 10 blindfolded and handcuffed men out of the hotel. The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad would say only that a delegation from Iran's Electricity Ministry had been staying at the hotel.

US forces on Monday raided what they said was a Sunni insurgent refuge north of Baghdad near the Shi'ite town of Khalis, and killed 33 suspected fighters for Al Qaeda in Iraq yesterday. There were no reported US fatalities.