Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The Karbala office of al-Maliki’s Dawa Party was firebombed by Moqtada Al Sadr’s men during the battle.

BAGHDAD - Following two days of battles, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, rushed to Karbala with his Defense Minister to meet with local officials trying to stop the fighting and eject the millions of pilgrims who had descended on the city for the holiest Shiite festival. The Karbala office of al-Maliki’s Dawa Party was firebombed during the clashes.

Maliki locked down access to the southern city on Wednesday after fierce battles between militias loyal to him and Moqtada Al Sadr claimed more than 50 lives and forced an end to the massive religious festival. The trouble started late Monday as tens of thousands of Shiites were streaming into the city for Shabaniyah, marking the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shiite imam who disappeared in the 9th century. Devout Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore peace and harmony.

It escalated dramatically the following day when gunmen from the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began firing on security forces and the Badr guards, according to security officials.

Initially, scuffles broke out between police and pilgrims as the crowd tried to push through the security checkpoints near the Imam al-Hussein mosque, the focal point of the celebrations. At least five people were killed in the skirmishes, police said.

By early Tuesday, crowds of angry pilgrims chanting religious slogans surged through the streets, attacking police and mosque guards, witnesses said. Two ambulances were set ablaze, sending a huge column of black smoke over the city.

Gunmen appeared, firing automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at security forces and sending panicked pilgrims fleeing the area, police and witnesses said.

Some rounds struck fuel tanks on the roofs of three small hotels, setting them ablaze, police said.

With the situation spiraling out of control, police ordered pilgrims out of the center of the city, effectively canceling the celebrations which were to reach their climax Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Gunfights also broke out Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and followers of the Supreme Council in at least two Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said. Sporadic gunbattles raged Wednesday near two shrines protected by the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

The clashes appeared to be part of a power struggle among Maliki and Al Sadr’s Shiite groups in the sect’s southern Iraqi heartland, which includes the bulk of the country’s vast oil wealth.

In Baghdad, a senior government security official blamed the fighting on al-Sadr’s followers, saying they provoked the confrontations Monday night and were responsible for the shooting Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid enflaming the situation.

A Sadrist lawmaker, Hamed Kanoush, was detained by Iraqi security forces and members of al-Sadr’s movement threatened to attack the governor’s office if he was not released, according to a member of the Karbala Provincial Council, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

The battle of Karbala claimed at least 52 killed and 300 others injured, according to the director general of the health department in nearby Najaf who spoke on condition of anonymity. Sixty wounded people were brought to a hospital in Najaf, 45 miles southeast of Karbala, because the hospitals in Karbala were unable to handle the volume of injuries, he said.

The prime minister’s office said security forces have sealed Karbala off, allowing only residents to enter, in another effort to restore order.

The defense ministry announced that al-Maliki had ordered the dismissal of the top army commander in the area—Maj. Gen. Salih Khazaal al-Maliki—and an investigation into his conduct.

On Wednesday authorities imposed a curfew on the Shiite city of Hilla. Security forces also sealed off several Shiite areas of Baghdad.

Security was heightened in other Shiite areas to prevent clashes from spreading.

A spokesman for al-Sadr, Ahmed al-Shaibani, denied that the Mahdi Army was involved in the Karbala fighting. Al-Sadr called for an independent inquiry into the clashes and urged his supporters to cooperate with the authorities “to calm the situation down,” al- Shaibani said.

Tensions have been rising in southern Iraq as rival Shiite groups maneuver for power, especially in the oil-rich area around Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.