Baghdad is the new Beirut : 50 Die in Fight Between Shiite Groups in Karbala :

Killing your neighbours and your co religions is nothing new for the Arabs !

BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 — A power struggle between rival Shiite groups erupted Tuesday during a religious festival in Karbala, as men with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades fought street battles amid crowds of pilgrims, killing 50 people and wounding 200, Iraqi officials said.
Witnesses said members of the Mahdi Army, the militia of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, traded fire with security forces loyal to the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.During hours of fighting, several vehicles and a hotel for pilgrims were set ablaze, and terrified pilgrims who had been praying at two shrines were trapped inside as clashes erupted nearby. Witnesses said buses that had been used to bring pilgrims to Karbala were bullet-shattered and bloodstained. The government forces in Karbala and other towns in southern Iraq are dominated by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its armed wing, the Badr Organization. Many Badr fighters are veterans trained by Iran when they lived there as exiles under Saddam Hussein’s rule. Tensions between the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization have simmered for months. Both are vying for control of the overwhelmingly Shiite regions of central and southern Iraq. Two provincial governors belonging to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council were assassinated in southern Iraq this month, although the Sadrists deny involvement. The showdown will prove embarrassing for Mr. Maliki if his security forces cannot control the Mahdi Army and restore order in a holy city in his own Shiite heartland. Security forces imposed an indefinite curfew on Karbala by nightfall Tuesday, fearing that the tensions would escalate as both sides vied for control of the streets. The violence appeared to spread to other cities, although attacks on mosques and offices linked to the Badr Organization were on a much smaller scale. In Baghdad, five people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes between militiamen in the Sadr City neighborhood, a Shiite stronghold, the police said. Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman in Baghdad, told Iraqi state television that reinforcements were headed to Karbala from Baghdad and surrounding provinces. The American military did not intervene directly in the fighting, a spokeswoman said, though it sent jets to fly over Karbala as a “show of force” at the request of the Iraqi authorities. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala in recent days to celebrate the birth of Muhammad al-Mahdi, the ninth-century saint and the last of 12 imams revered by Shiites. As pilgrims gathered in a plaza between the city’s twin golden-domed shrines, witnesses said, Mahdi Army fighters took up positions around the shrines and traded fire with the police. Pilgrims, whom officials had ordered to leave the city, fled in panic, but many could not get transportation out of the area as the police set up roadblocks to prevent Mahdi Army fighters from entering. “Hundreds of Mahdi Army have occupied several hotels near the two shrines,” said a policeman from the plaza between them. “The battle is fierce, and we are defending our posts here.” Amid the narrow, medieval alleys of Karbala confusion reigned, with an unconfirmed report that the Mahdi Army had taken control of the shrines while security forces had remained at their checkpoints in the center of the city. “I am inside the shrine of Imam Hussein,” said a pilgrim reached by telephone at the height of the fighting. “The shooting is so heavy outside, and I can’t leave the shrine. I don’t know exactly what is going on outside, but the clashes seem close to the shrine.” Women could be heard shouting in panic in the background. The tensions in Karbala began Monday, with confrontations between Sadr supporters and the Badr-dominated security forces around the shrines. Those forces have been on a constant state of high alert because of suicide bombings by Sunni insurgents at Shiite religious festivals in previous years. Sadrists said the police who carried out body searches and magnetic scans at checkpoints provoked their followers by beating pilgrims who chanted pro-Sadr slogans. Other reports said that Mahdi Army followers accompanying pilgrims and claiming to be protecting them were prohibited from taking weapons into the shrines. Iraqi officials said those initial clashes escalated Monday night when the police attacked the al-Mukhayam mosque, a Mahdi Army stronghold in Karbala, and arrested about 20 fighters. The Mahdi Army retaliated Tuesday morning by attacking security force positions, the police said.
Gunmen also attacked Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council offices and mosques in Sadr City, Shuala, Jadriya, Husseiniya, Khadimiya and Diwaniya. Haydar Abbas, a lecturer in law at the University of Babil in central Iraq, said it was significant that the confrontation took place when the Sadrists appeared to feel increasingly marginalized. Mr. Sadr’s followers left the government this year over a disagreement with Mr. Maliki about the continued American troop presence in Iraq. The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council is the largest Shiite party in the government. Mr. Abbas said the Supreme Islamic Iraq Council’s influence had been growing. “They have a lot of power over Maliki,” he said. “What is going on is a message from the Sadrists that we are here and we will not withdraw easily.” “If we read the history of the two movements, the Badrists and the Mahdi Army, we see that both were military factions turned into political powers,” Mr. Abbas said. “This means that they might revert at any time to their military nature.” On Tuesday night, each side blamed the other for the fighting. The Sadr office in Najaf issued a statement from Mr. Sadr appealing for calm. “We want to clear up the misunderstanding that happened in Karbala,” it said. “This crisis is not connected with the Mahdi Army or Sadr movement. The incidents that happened were between the pilgrims and the government forces.” Mr. Maliki’s office issued a statement calling its opponents “armed criminals and followers of the old regime” and saying that order had been restored to the streets.