Cars off Baghdad streets as Shi’ites gather

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Baghdad’s streets were largely empty on
Saturday after the government banned all movement of vehicles
to guard against any attack on a major Shi’ite religious
festival in a city gripped by sectarian violence.

Snipers were posted on rooftops while Iraqi soldiers and
police sealed off the streets around the shrine of Imam Musa
Kadhim in the northern district of Kadhimiya, the focus of the
two-day festival. Pilgrims entering the area were
body-searched.

Nearly 1,000 Shi’ite pilgrims were killed in a stampede
during last year’s ceremony, when a crowd heading toward the
shrine was panicked by rumors of a suicide bomber.

It was the greatest loss of Iraqi life in a single incident
since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Most of the victims were
women and children, Iraqi officials said at the time.

Dozens of armed Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to Shi’ite
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched down Kadhimiya’s main street.
Wearing black T-shirts, camouflage trousers and woolen caps and
toting AK-47 guns, they were deployed to protect the pilgrims,
seven of whom were killed by gunmen in a Sunni suburb on Friday
night.

Baghdad has been racked by sectarian bloodshed between
majority Shi’ites and minority Sunnis since an attack on a
Shi’ite shrine in February. The violence has overshadowed the
Sunni insurgency and raised fears of all-out civil war.

Thousands of U.S. troop reinforcements have been sent to
the capital city to help Iraqi security forces, who have so far
failed to quell the violence that has killed thousands.

Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose
three-month-old government has battled to defuse sectarian
tensions, called on mosque preachers to promote national
reconciliation and vowed to pursue anyone “using Islam to
promote sectarian violence.”

Iraqi Army Brigadier Abdul-Jabbar al-Hamdani declined to
say how many soldiers and police had been deployed but said
there were three security rings around the shrine to protect
pilgrims.

Palm groves and cemeteries, potential launchpads for mortar
or rocket attacks, were also being searched.

“All vehicles are banned in Baghdad indefinitely,” a
Ministry of Defense spokesman said. The vehicle curfew began at
9 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday.

PILGRIMS WALK

Groups of pilgrims, some waving green flags, walked through
the otherwise empty streets toward Kadhimiya. “It is a gift
from God that we are safe. It is thanks to the police, army and
Interior Ministry forces,” one pilgrim said.

Marking the third anniversary of the bombing that killed 22
United Nations staff and wounded 166 at their Baghdad
headquarters in 2003, U.N. special envoy Ashraf Qazi called for
a swift solution to the violence wracking Iraq.

“The tragedy that the people of Iraq have endured with
patience, hope and faith must be overcome, and soon. There is
no time to lose,” he told a ceremony in Baghdad marking the
worst attack on a U.N. civilian mission.

A roadside bomb targeting the convoy of Brigadier General
Jamil al-Haji, chief of staff of the 8th Iraqi Infantry
Division, killed two of his bodyguards in Diwaniya, 40 km (25
miles) south of Baghdad, police in the town said.

Haji escaped unhurt and soldiers arrested three suspects.

The government has advised pilgrims attending the festival
not to carry weapons, bags or mobile phones, which can be used
to detonate bombs, accept food or drink from strangers, or
“believe or start rumors that cause panic.”

At least 965 people were killed last year in the panic
sparked by rumors of an imminent attack by a suicide bomber.
Many got caught in the crush on A’imma bridge over the Tigris
or drowned when they jumped into the river.

Brigadier Hamdani said the bridge had been closed to
pilgrims this year.

Shi’ite religious festivals attract tens of thousands of
faithful and have been a frequent target of attack by
militants, including members of al Qaeda.

This weekend Shi’ites will mark the death of Imam Musa
Kadhim in 799 A.D. Islamic historians say he was poisoned by
the leader of the Muslim caliphate, who feared him as a rival.