26 killed in Shiite city of Karbala in two days

Police ordered a curfew today in Shiite holy city of Karbala and told more than one million pilgrims to leave after two days of violence claimed least 26 lives during a Shiite religious festival.

An Interior Ministry official accused the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr of attacking government security forces in the centre of Karbala, site of two Shiite shrines under the control of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. Al-Sadr’s forces are battling SIIC for power in regions south of Baghdad.