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Shiite pilgrims flood Karbalah

Shiite Muslim men, separated from women, pray outside the tomb of Shiite Imam Hussein in Karbalah on Wednesday. Pilgrims are gathering in the city for Arbaeen today, marking 40 days after Ashura, which commemorates the killing in 680 of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. PHOTO: AFP

Around 2.5 million Shiite pilgrims flooded the Iraqi holy city of Karbalah yesterday, according to its governor, as thousands more braved sectarian terror to stream in from around the country.

Three days of attacks on Shiite devotees walking to Karbalah have left more than 150 of them dead, blown up by suicide attackers or cut down by Sunni insurgent snipers and mortar crews.

The violence has exacerbated Iraq's already yawning sectarian divide, and Iraqi security forces were taking no chances in Karbalah, the destination of worshippers celebrating the Arbaeen religious festival.

Karbalah Governor Aqil Al-Khazali said tight security was in place for today's events, and that modern equipment had been deployed to detect explosive vests following suicide bombing attacks on pilgrims.

Outside the city, however, attacks continued, albeit without the savagery of recent days: six Shiite pilgrims were wounded in separate bomb and gun attacks in towns south of Baghdad as they walked towards Karbalah, police said.

In Baghdad, the new US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus said Iraqi forces had thwarted several car bomb attacks on the outkirts of Karbalah.

The massive death toll of recent days has triggered concerns that even the limited progress made by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Baghdad security plan could be overturned by a new round for tit-for-tat killings.

Politicians and clerics from both sides of the sectarian divide yesterday called for Iraqi unity.

"The Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani called on Iraqis to unite and maintain their political gains they achieved," said fellow Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim after meeting Sistani in Najaf.

"The Iraqi Islamic Party condemn this crime that targeted pilgrims and repeats that Muslim and all Iraqi blood should not be shed," said a statement from the country's main Sunni party.

"The party also calls on the Iraqi government to earnestly work to control security in all provinces -- and not only in Baghdad -- as well as to soothe this sectarian fever," it added.

Meanwhile, with tens of thousands of Iraqi and US troops on the streets of Baghdad in a bid to keep order, Maliki's government was preparing the next stage in its political project -- an international conference.

Representatives from Iraq's neighbors and from the permanent members of the UN Security Council, will meet in at Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tomorrow to discuss the crisis.

All eyes will be on the delegates from Iran and the US.

"We will ask all neighboring countries to stop interfering in Iraqi affairs and to put pressure on the armed groups with whom they have links to end the violence," Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari said last week.

US commanders accuse Iranian agents of smuggling weapons to Shiite factions in Iraq, including components for lethal roadside bombs that have been blamed for the deaths of at least 170 US soldiers since May 2004.

Syria has also been accused of allowing Sunni Arab extremists to cross its borders to join al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting in Iraq, and Shiite Iraqi officials accuse Saudi Arabian figures of funding violent groups.

Tomorrow's conference will put senior officials from these countries around the table for the first time to discuss the crisis.
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