From the Los Angeles Times

1 million Shiites evacuated from shrine in Karbala

By Carol J. Williams and Saad Fakhrildeen
Special to The Times

12:36 PM PDT, August 28, 2007

BAGHDAD — Clashes between rival Shiite Muslim militias in the holy city of Karbala today killed at least 50 people, torched three hotels and prompted Iraqi authorities to order the evacuation of more than 1 million pilgrims from the shrine where they had gathered.

More than 150 people were injured in the helter-skelter panic that followed random gunfire by militants in the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr and those of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

The two Shiite militias have been waging an increasingly deadly battle for control of southern Iraq's most important cities and its abundant oil resources.

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

The fighting began with Mahdi Army gunmen hurling rocks, bricks and knives at police but quickly escalated into an exchange of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire, witnesses said.

Iraqi authorities ordered a curfew for the besieged city 50 miles south of the capital and in Najaf and Hillah, other Badr strongholds on the route to Baghdad, and sent buses to begin bringing the pilgrims out of Karbala.

"I am stuck in Karbala near the governorate building, where I'm hearing a heavy exchange of gunfire," a pilgrim from Najaf, who did not want to be identified, said by cellphone from where he was taking cover about 200 yards from the shrine.

He said gunmen had set fire to the hotels after militiamen holed up inside fired on Iraqi police and soldiers. Pilgrims had also taken refuge in the buildings to escape stray gunfire that had caused a stampede, adding to the toll.

As the violence escalated despite the government's deployment of 15,000 troops for the annual ritual, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed the U.S. mission to bring peace to Iraq a failure that has led to a power vacuum. He added that Iran was ready to step in.

"The political power of the occupiers has been destroyed," Ahmadinejad told reporters at a news conference in Tehran. "Rapidly and very soon we will witness a great void in the region, and we and our friends, along with Saudi Arabia and the nation of Iraq, are prepared to fill that void."

Despite a buildup of nearly 30,000 additional U.S. troops over the last six months, civilian deaths from sectarian fighting, hit squads and militia power struggles have continued unabated. The violence has thwarted U.S. aims of turning over responsibility for security to Iraqis, whose police and army ranks are often overwhelmed by the more powerful and better armed militias.

The violence convulsing Karbala spread to Baghdad by nightfall, when gunmen believed to be from the Mahdi Army raided the Supreme Council offices in the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya. Four guards were kidnapped from the offices representing the Shiite political faction headed by Najaf cleric Abdelaziz Hakim.

The Karbala clashes were ignited late Monday when Hakim's son Ammar arrived at the shrine with a phalanx of Badr Organization bodyguards who were waved through the security cordon holding back the rest of the worshipers, including Mahdi militiamen, according to witnesses.

The Karbala pilgrimage honors the birth date of one of the Shiite faith's 12 revered imams, Mohammed Mahdi, a 9th century prophet who disappeared and, according to Shiite belief, will return one day to govern the faithful in an era of peace.

Sadr's militia is named for the lost prophet known as the "Hidden Imam."