Shiites’ clash disrupts religious festival
NAJAF, Iraq – Shiite militias battled in Karbala on Tuesday, 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 members loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
The death toll could climb, with witnesses reporting dozens of bodies on the streets surrounding the Imam Hussein shrine and amid smoldering rubble.
The confrontation came during the annual Shiite Muslim pilgrimage to Karbala that was to have culminated in prayers and festivities overnight Tuesday into today in commemoration of the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, one of the Shiite faith’s 12 revered imams.
Early today, U.S. troops released seven Iranians, hours after detaining them at a central Baghdad hotel, an Iranian embassy official said. The diplomat, who refused to give his name, said one of those released contacted the embassy to say that they have been handed over to Iraqi authorities.
American troops raided Baghdad’s Sheraton Ishtar hotel and took away a group of about 10 people late Tuesday. The diplomat said the seven Iranians included an embassy staffer and six members of a delegation from Iran’s Electricity Ministry.
The U.S. military confirmed that it had taken “some individuals … identified as being Iranian citizens with Iranian passports” into custody on Tuesday, but said they were apprehended at a checkpoint nearby the Sheraton hotel during a routine stop.
Several of the men were observed to have weapons in their cars, none of them had the appropriate permits, so all were detained, the military said.
The arrest of Iranians could add to tensions between Washington and Tehran strained by the detention of each other’s citizens as well as U.S. accusations of Iran’s involvement in Iraq’s violence and efforts to develop nuclear bombs.