Massed Shiite pilgrims risk more death in Iraq
The Muslim pilgrims’ road to the holy city of Karbala became a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites yesterday. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people, ratcheting up the sectarian tensions gripping Iraq.
Security forces, including US armoured reinforcements, girded for more bloodshed leading up to Monday’s Shiite holiday. And north of Baghdad, in the Sunni Triangle, a two-day-old operation involving 1,500 US and Iraqi troops swept through an area near Samarra in search of insurgents.
