Baghdad attack prompts security upgrade

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi officials stepped up security yesterday ahead of a major Shia pilgrimage after a mortar attack on a religious procession in Baghdad killed seven people and wounded dozens.

The attack came during a sectarian-fueled deadlock in the Shia-led coalition government and may further inflame tensions.

Security forces have been put on high alert and new measures have been taken to prevent attacks on the tens of thousands of pilgrims expected to gather to commemorate the death of a revered imam, said Dhia al-Wakil, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry and the Baghdad operations command.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a warning against "attempts to exploit religious events and pilgrimages" through militant displays, a remark apparently aimed at firebrand Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers have been known to take to the streets in shows of force.

Pilgrims have already started to arrive in Baghdad for the commemorations marking the eighth-century death of Imam Moussa ibn Jaafar al-Kadhim, one of the 12 principal Shia saints, who is buried in a mosque in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

Two mortar shells hit a procession in Kazimiyah late Sunday, killing seven and wounding 38. The attack came before the expected climax of religious observations on Saturday, when pilgrims traditionally walk to the twin-domed shrine in Kazimiyah where al-Kadhim is said to be buried.

Yesterday, all side streets in Kazimiyah and its surrounding areas were blocked to secure the way for pilgrims, an Interior Ministry official said.

The al-Kadhim procession was struck by tragedy in 2005, when thousands of pilgrims panicked by rumors of a suicide bomber broke into a stampede on a bridge, leaving some 1,000 of them dead. Police found no explosives on the bridge, and said poor crowd control and the climate of fear in Iraq appeared largely to blame.