BAGHDAD, Aug 20: Gunmen ambushed pilgrims as they marched through Baghdad on Sunday, killing an estimated 20 people, a year after a stampede claimed nearly 1,000 lives on the deadliest day in post-war Iraq.

Bursts of gunfire and explosions rocked the Iraqi capital as hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims headed to the mausoleum of Imam Musa Kadhim (RA), whose death 12 centuries ago is marked by major Shia pilgrimage every year.

Government spokesmen said security forces had the event under control and by the standards of Baghdad’s recent descent into sectarian bloodshed — which sees around 50 people killed each day — the death toll was low.

Nevertheless, health and interior ministry officials said that 20 pilgrims were killed when suspected extremists fired into crowds, while a defence ministry officer put the toll at 18 dead and 200 wounded.

Police and insurgents were also among the casualties.

“We have reports of 10 Iraqi forces wounded. Three people were detained for conducting attacks, one of whom died of wounds received after engaging Iraqi forces,” a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq said.

Armed Shia Muslims from the Mehdi Army militia, followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, could be seen escorting sections of the crowd, fuelling fears that violence surrounding the march could stir Iraq’s sectarian conflict.

The attacks were a reminder of last year’s gruesome tragedy when at least 965 pilgrims were killed in a bridge stampede triggered by a mortar attack and rumours of a suicide bomber in the midst of pilgrims.

“There was some shooting on the Rusafa (east Baghdad) side against civilians, but the situation is under control,” said Qassem al-Mussawi, head of joint operations in the prime minister’s office.

Shooting broke out in the Al-Khilani neighbourhood when a sniper opened up on a crowd of pilgrims and police returned fire. The crowd was diverted onto a new route, where they came under fire again as they passed a Sunni cemetery.

State media blamed the ambushes on ‘takfiris’ or Sunni extremists, but some Sunni leaders claimed Shias had provoked the attacks and government security forces had stood by as militiamen attacked Sunni homes and mosques.

“We demand that the government stand up to these saboteurs and those who are trying to destabilise the country,” said a statement from the Islamic Party, the main Sunni group in Iraq’s coalition government.

Despite the threat of attacks, men, women and children, many of them dressed in traditional black outfits and carrying green, orange and yellow flags and copies of Holy Quran, gathered at the tomb of Imam Musa Kadhim.—AFP