blinkx

  • IRAQ: Overnight clashes kill six as pilgrims gather in Iraq's holy city of Kerbala to mark one of the holiest days on the Shi'ite calendar

  • 00:00:10
  • ITN Source
    • Browse

IRAQ: Overnight clashes kill six as pilgrims gather in Iraq's holy city of Kerbala to mark one of the holiest days on the Shi'ite calendar

Local authorities began evacuating hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from the Iraqi city of Kerbala on Tuesday (August 27) as a battle raged between Iraqi security forces and gunmen near two of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines. A senior security source in Baghdad said 25 people had been killed, mostly policemen. The director of Kerbala's al-Hussein Hospital said it had received eight bodies. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told state television 50 people had been killed and wounded in the violence. The fighting, which first broke out on Monday night (August 27), appeared to be between gunmen loyal to the fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, possibly members of his Mehdi Army militia, and police linked to the rival Shi'ite political movement, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) and its Badr Organisation. Police said a curfew had been imposed and buses were being organised to evacuate the pilgrims, most of whom had walked from Baghdad and elsewhere to mark the 9th century birth of Mohammad al-Mahdi, the last of 12 imams Shi'ites revere as saints. Reuters witnesses in the city, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, could hear the sound of intense gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades being fired and saw columns of smoke rising from the centre of the city, apparently from cars that police said had been set ablaze. Police said gunmen armed with automatic weapons and pistols were trying to take control of the area around the Imam Ali and Imam Abbas shrines, the focal point of Tuesday's ceremonies.

ITN Source | August 28, 2007Watch more videos from ITN Source

Tags:. .received. .violence. .august. .armed. .senior











Abbas   Abdul   Ablaze   Ali   Alsadr   Apparently   Armed   Army   August   Automatic   Badr   Baghdad   Began   Birth   Broke   Buses   Calendar   Centre   Century   Ceremonies   Clashes   Cleric   Columns   Council   Curfew   Eight   Elsewhere   Evacuate   Evacuating   Fiery   Focal   Gather   Grenades   Gunfire   Gunmen   Holiest   Holy   Imams   Imposed   Intense   Interior   Iraqi   Islamic   Islams   Kareem   Kerbalas   Km   Loyal   Mehdi   Miles   Militia   Ministry   Mohammad   Moqtada   Movement   Overnight   Pilgrims   Pistols   Policemen   Raged   Received   Revere   Rival   Rocketpropelled   Saints   Saw   Senior   Shiites   Shrines   Smoke   Spokesman   Supreme   Violence   Weapons   Whom   Witnesses   Wounded