IRAQ: Hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims flocked to the holy Iraqi city of Kerbala yesterday amid tight security measures designed to foil any sectarian attack.
Flying flags and flailing themselves, a sea of people filled roads to Kerbala ahead of Arbain, mourning the dead in a seventh century battle that confirmed a schism in Islam which still leaves Iraq dangerously divided between Sunnis and Shias today.
The proceedings, which come to a climax this evening, were calm aside from a mortar round that hurt no one but was a reminder of bombings that have caused carnage at previous Shia rituals.
In Baghdad Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders were still struggling to form a national unity government more than three months after elections, raising fears that a political vacuum will play into the hands of insurgents and fuel violence.
Meanwhile, 12 bodies with gunshot wounds were found around the capital, police said, apparently the latest victims of sectarian violence that threatens to turn into all-out conflict.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, yesterday backed a call by an Iraqi Shia leader for talks with Iran, which Washington accuses of meddling in Iraq and seeking nuclear arms. "I am one of the people who supports this. The problem of Iraq has become an international one," he said.
Iraqi political sources said they expected the United States ambassador to meet Iran's representatives this week.
But Gen George Casey, US commander in Iraq, questioned Iran's motives. "They're playing, I think, a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand they want a stable neighbour. On the other hand I don't believe they want to see us succeed here," he told Fox television.
In Tehran, an Iranian official said he expected the talks to focus on "the timetable for the departure of occupying forces". Greater Iranian influence in Iraq could fuel resentment among Sunni Arabs who are deeply suspicious of Tehran.
Secular former prime minister Iyad Allawi said Iraq was nearing the "point of no return" towards all-out civil war. "We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he told BBC television.
President Bush, speaking to reporters on his return to Washington from Camp David, urged Iraqi leaders to get a unity government "up and running" and added: "I'm encouraged by the progress." He ignored a question about Mr Allawi's comments.
Arab and Western leaders worry that if Iraq were to crumble, sectarian violence would spread throughout the Middle East, and Europe and the United States would also feel the impact.
The Kerbala authorities, wary of any repeat of the Samarra shrine attack, deployed at least 8,000 Iraqi police and soldiers in the city. Local officials say they expect up to two million to attend the mourning ceremonies this evening in Kerbala, 110km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
North of the capital, US troops killed a boy, his parents and five other people after their patrol was ambushed in the Sunni town of Duluiya early yesterday, Iraqi police said. The US military said troops killed seven "terrorists".
The third anniversary of the US and British invasion drew tens of thousands of protesters on to the streets at the weekend in at least two dozen cities around the world.
In London, Rose Gentle, whose soldier son Gordon (19), was killed by a roadside bomb last year in Basra, southern Iraq, said British prime minister Tony Blair has made Iraq a worse place for the Iraqi people. "Every day you hear of new deaths," she said.
Many of the weekend demonstrations in Australia, Asia and Europe drew smaller-than-anticipated crowds. In London, police said 15,000 people joined a march on Saturday from parliament and Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square.
The anniversary last year attracted 45,000 protesters in the city.