NAJAF, IRAQ — Shiite militias attacked each other 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 people were injured in the panic that ensued when Mahdi Army members loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr battled the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
The death toll was expected 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 ablaze during the rampage.
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 southern city of Basra, the wealthiest oil venue in Iraq, is about to be handed over to Iraqi forces by British troops, and the impending move 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 came in the midst of the annual Shiite Muslim pilgrimage to Karbala that was to have culminated in prayers and festivities today in commemoration of the birth of Mohammed Mahdi, one of Shiite Islam's 12 revered imams. The curfews and evacuation order scuttled the highlight of the ritual in honor of the 9th century prophet who disappeared and, according to Shiite belief, will return one day to usher in an era of peace.
Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the majority Shiite population oppressed by his Sunni-dominated government has had new freedom to participate in pilgrimages and other religious activities. But some of the mass activities have been marred by attacks by the rival Sunni Muslim community. In this case, the fighting is between rival Shiite groups that have been battling for political supremacy as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government founders amid accusations of incompetence and sectarianism.
Sadr's political movement has been boycotting the government, and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council's top figure in the national leadership, Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi, has been seen as a potential successor to Maliki should he resign or should the parliament oust him.
