BAGHDAD, Iraq – Snipers lurking on buildings and in a cemetery sprayed bullets into Shiite Muslim religious processions in the capital Sunday, killing at least 20 people in another spasm of sectarian bloodletting that many Iraqis fear is pushing them toward civil war.
About 300 people were injured, mostly when they fell while running to escape gunfire in Sunni Arab-dominated areas along the parade routes. In one neighborhood, gunmen hid behind tombstones at a Sunni cemetery.
“I was walking and someone got shot in front of me. It wasn’t random fire, it was a clear sniper attack,” said Mohammed Jassim, 32.
He said he could hear the faint crack of shots over the noise of the procession. “People panicked and started yelling: ‘It came from here, no from there.’”
Women in black Islamic robes helped each other while running for cover. Many took refuge under an overpass, flinching and ducking in fear at the sound of each gunshot.
It was relatively quiet elsewhere in Iraq, with eight killings reported in other areas.
The snipings occurred despite heavy security imposed in Baghdad by Iraqi and U.S. forces as well as a weekend driving ban designed to prevent car bombings amid the tit-for-tat violence that Shiites and Sunnis have waged since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
Still, the day’s main ceremonies went off peacefully at the golden-domed shrine to Imam Moussa Kadhim, one of 12 Shiite Muslim saints.
The attacks on pilgrims took place in three or four neighborhoods at least a mile from the shrine where Kadhim is buried in the Kazimiyah neighborhood of north Baghdad. Shiites believe that Kadhim, who died in A.D. 799, was poisoned in prison by a Sunni caliph.
Pilgrims wearing white shrouds to symbolize their willingness to die for Islam chanted “God bless (Prophet) Muhammad and his descendants” as they converged on the mosque.
“We heed your call, oh Imam!” they proclaimed before entering the compound, beating their chests and flagellating themselves with steel chains in a traditional Shiite expression of grief.
Fadhil al-Sharaa, an aide to Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, estimated a million people participated in the processions. Other officials were more conservative, putting the figure at 200,000 to 300,000.
The Health Ministry and the Interior Ministry gave identical casualty figures in the shootings: 20 pilgrims killed and 304 injured, only a few of the latter by bullets. Police said four militants, including two snipers, were killed by security forces.
About 12,000 extra U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have been deployed to Baghdad in recent weeks as part of a security crackdown on a surge of insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodshed in the capital.
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