Gunfire, smoke in Karbala in wake of deadly clashes
(29 Aug 2007) SHOTLIST August 29, 2007 1. Building fa�ade scorched by fire UPSOUND: gunfire 2. Burnt out car in street 3. Huge cloud of black smoke near the holy shrine of Imam al-Hussein, crowds of onlookers 4. Fire truck and smoke, people looking on 5. Various wide shots of scene with smoke and crowds 6. Close of building on fire 7. Group of people street 8. Helicopter flying overhead 9. Imam al-Hussein Hospital sign 10. People in hospital corridor 11. Injured boy in hospital bed 12. Man with chest and arm injuries in hospital bed 13. Badly injured man on bed 14. Injured man being wheeled into room on trolley 15. Wooden coffin being taken to morgue 16. Various of women grieving outside morgue 17. Various of bodies in morgue 18. People gathered outside morgue 19. Ambulance turning in street 20. Coffin being loaded on to truck August 28, 2007 21. People running in street, zoom-in to masked gunman firing rifle UPSOUND: gunfire 22. Damaged motorbike lying by side of road, zoom-in to tighter shot ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 23. Crowd of pilgrims in street 24. Zoom-in from crowd to soldier 25. Pilgrims dancing and chanting 26. Various of buildings on fire STORYLINE Authorities locked down access to the southern city of Karbala on Wednesday after fierce clashes between rival Shiite militias claimed more than 50 lives and forced an end to a massive religious festival. Security was heightened in other Shiite areas to prevent clashes from spreading. Following two days of clashes, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, went to Karbala to meet with local officials trying to restore order and move the hordes of pilgrims who had descended on the city for the festival. The Karbala office of al-Maliki's Dawa Party was firebombed during the melee. Sporadic gunbattles raged Wednesday near two shrines protected by the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, although violence was tapering off. Clashes began late Monday but escalated dramatically the following day when gunmen believed to be from the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began firing on security forces and the Badr guards, according to security officials. However, a spokesman for al-Sadr denied that the Mahdi Army was involved in the Karbala fighting. Al-Sadr called for an independent inquiry into the clashes and urged his supporters to cooperate with the authorities "to calm the situation down," the spokesman said. A pro-Sadr member of the Karbala city council, Ahmed al-Husseini, blamed the violence on pro-Iranian groups among security forces that guard the Karbala shrines. Tensions have been rising in southern Iraq as rival Shiite groups manoeuvre for power, especially in the oil-rich area around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. The fighting forced authorities to cut short the annual Shabaniya festival, which drew an estimated 1 (m) million people from across the Shiite world. Despite an order to clear the city centre, an al-Arabiya television correspondent on the scene reported there remained an "intensive deployment" of Mahdi army fighters, waving guns in the air. A Sadrist lawmaker, Hamed Kanoush, was detained by Iraqi security forces and members of al-Sadr's movement threatened to attack the governor's office if he was not released, according to a member of the Karbala Provincial Council, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. At least 52 people were killed and 300 others injured in the fighting, according to the director general of the health department in nearby Najaf who spoke on condition of anonymity. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
