"The guards of the shrine just started shooting toward the pilgrims," said a Sadr City man in the midst of the melee Tuesday who wanted to be identified only as Abu Anwar. "Some of the casualties are from gunshots, but many others were caused by the stampede when everyone was trying to flee."
Shooting flared in the afternoon, when local police, some affiliated with the Badr militia, sought to flush out gunmen who had taken up positions in the hotels flanking the road between two shrines -- Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas -- that form the religious heart of the city. The hotels were set ablaze, as were cars flanking the thronged streets and parts of the Hussein shrine. Windows were broken and their frames charred by fires ignited by grenades.
Witnesses said the fighting moved several blocks from the holy sites by late Tuesday but that smoke could be seen billowing from the shrine that had been strewn with garlands of white lights that formed a festive canopy. U.S. military aircraft buzzed over the scene, the witnesses reported.
Police and Iraqi army forces used loudspeakers to order those from outside Karbala to move to the city's outskirts so they could be bused to safety.
Some pilgrims who left before the order was issued faced further harassment by gunmen along the route. A boy was killed and his father wounded in a drive-by shooting as they drove north of Hillah toward Baghdad, and at least six people traveling in private cars or minibuses were hit by gunfire suspected to be coming from Sunni snipers.
Maliki ordered more security forces to Karbala to protect the evacuation route to Baghdad and vowed to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice.
"The government will confront all the outlaws and will not accept such blackmail that would weaken the state," the prime minister told Al Hurra TV at the end of a day replete with the chaos he has been accused of fostering by ignoring the actions of rogue Shiite militias.
A spokesman for Sadr's organization denied in a statement from Najaf that the Mahdi Army had been involved in the Karbala violence.
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carol.williams@latimes.com
Special correspondent Fakhrildeen reported from Najaf and Times staff writer Williams from Baghdad. Special correspondents Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Maha Khateeb in Hillah, and Times staff writer Saif Rasheed in Baghdad contributed to this report.
