Shiite Pilgrimage Takes on Political Tone

By LAUREN FRAYER

By Lauren Frayer

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched to a gold-domed mosque in harsh heat and sun Thursday in a pilgrimage of devotion to an 8 th-century saint that also starkly demonstrated their political power.

Only scattered strikes by Sunni insurgents marred the event, held amid tight security to avoid the attacks that have occurred during past gatherings.

“Long live Muqtada!” some pilgrims shouted as they paraded toward the Imam al-Kadhim shrine, referring to Shiite leader Muqtada al Sadr, whose Mahdi army is accused of death squad attacks. “May God kill his enemies!”

A few shook their fists at U.S. soldiers standing alongside the procession route, but the march was mostly peaceful.

Many said they intended their presence to show they could not be intimidated by Sunni insurgents who have devastated past gatherings, and who regularly target Shiites at markets and on buses.

“I have come here to get the blessing of the martyr imam and to challenge the terrorism of the Wahhabists,” said Hussein Mizaal, a 21-year-old college student from southeastern Baghdad. He was referring to the austere Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam, practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia but also identified with Sunni insurgents.

“We are not afraid of anyone except God,” Mizaal said.

In Baghdad, the heat soared to 115 degrees as the march unfolded.

The Iraqi government, acting on tips that car bombers were on the move with plans to kill Shiite Muslims during the festival, imposed a scheduled curfew almost a day early and caught millions of residents off-guard – and, in some cases, without food.

The curfew, halting all vehicular traffic, was to start at 10 p.m. Wednesday, the government announced Tuesday afternoon. Instead, officials imposed it 21 hours earlier, around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The march came as Iraq’s government remains sharply divided, unable to meet key U.S.-sought benchmarks like a new oil law. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who heads the unity government but is accused of bias by Sunnis, was in Iran to talk about security and electricity deals.

At the meetings in Tehran, Iranian officials told al-Maliki they were doing all they could to help stabilize his nation but insisted that only a U.S. pullout would bring true peace.

Al-Maliki said decisions about an American pullout were between Baghdad and Washington. This issue “belongs to the Iraqis only and it is related to the readiness of the Iraqi armed forces and their ability to take over security responsibilities,” he said.

Al-Maliki has long played a delicate balancing act in the bitter rivalry between his two allies, putting off Iranian calls for an American pullout while balking at U.S. pressure to take a tougher line against Tehran.

President Bush said he hoped al-Maliki’s message to Tehran would be the same as the U.S. message – that Iran should halt the export of sophisticated explosive devices used to attack U.S. troops in Iraq or “there will be consequences.”

Al-Maliki did not say whether he pressed Iran on the U.S. accusations, and the first two days of his three-day trip aimed at enlisting Iranian help in pacifying Iraq appeared to bring no concessions from America’s greatest rival in the region.

McClatchy News Service contributed to this report.

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