Iraqis put Ashoura attacks toll at 271 as martyrs buried

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: Tens of thousands of mourners participated in mass funerals held near the two holy shrines in this holy city on Wednesday of the husseini mourners martyred in terror attacks on Ashoura Day in the holy cities of Karbala and Kazemiyah.

They chanted slogans against the United States venting their anger at Iraq's instability after a series of suicide bombings against husseini mourners.

Senior Shiite and Sunni clerics said that both Shiite and Sunnis would not be provoked into a civil war by deadly bombings in Kazemiyah and Kerbala.

In Kazemiyah, Shiites and Sunni brethren jointly protested at the Imam Mousa Al-Kazem (p) holy shrine Wednesday to show solidarity in the wake of Tuesday's suicide attacks here as well as in the holy city of Karbala.

They were chanting: “We are brothers, Sunnis and Shiites, and we will not sell our country to foreigners.”

“We are facing critical hours and dark days... so open your eyes against the plots of America and Israel to sow dissension,” said Moayad Naimi, imam of the main Sunni shrine of Abu Hanifa in Aadhimiya across the Tigris River adding his followers had rushed to donate blood for the Shiite victims.

“If the two sides fight it's the Americans who benefit to find an excuse to stay in Iraq,” said Sheikh Raed al-Kazemi, a Shiite.

Meanwhile, Iraq Governing Council President Mohammed Bahr-ul-Uloum said the toll from Tuesday’s terror attacks has risen to 271. US officials, however, put the combined death toll at 117, down from 143 that they reported Tuesday. It was impossible to reconcile the discrepancy immediately.

Iraqi Governing Council declared three days of mourning and postponed the signing of a new temporary constitution, scheduled for Wednesday, until Friday.

In another development, a senior official from the US-led coalition said that terrorists probably crossed into Iraq with the Iranian pilgrims and that 15 people had been arrested over the attacks in Karbala, including four who speak Farsi and are believed to be Iranian.

In Karbala, mourners paraded the coffins past the scene of the attacks, where 24 hours earlier the streets were filled with blood and the bodies of the dead, before carrying them to the Imam Hussein (p) shrine. There they were draped with Iraqi flags before being borne to another nearby shrine.

Later Wednesday more than 50 coffins were expected to be driven to the holy city of Najaf, where they will be buried.

The mourners were mostly calm, but some were angry at the Americans, who they said had not done enough to protect the Ashoura processions from attackers.

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