Iraq Watch: February 6, 2006

Sporadic Violence Continues as Shiites Prepare for Ashoura

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of bombings and shootings across Iraq on Monday left over a dozen people dead as Shiites prepared for the Ashoura festival - a commemorative celebration honoring the death of seventh century Shiite saint and grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, Iman Hussein - which reaches its climax Thursday.

Two Iraqi policemen were shot dead near the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk while a former military intelligence official was assassinated in western Baghdad.

In the capital's southern Abu Dashir neighborhood police discovered the executed bodies of two Sunni Arabs who were reportedly abducted from their home late Sunday by members of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The discovery of the two men, who were found with their legs and hands bound, is likely to inflame already high sectarian tensions.

To the south, in Basra, gunmen killed an Iraqi man working as an interpreter for the British military.

Iraq's majority Shiites, meanwhile, were preparing for the annual Ashoura festival, which reaches its peak on the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in Islam's lunar calendar.

The death of Iman Hussein in 680 AD, whom Shiites consider the successor to the Prophet Mohammed, marks the split in Islam between the Sunnis and the Shiites. During Ashoura thousands of Shiites make the pilgrimage to the holy shrine, which bears the revered iman's name, in Karbala, Iraq where it is believed Hussein is buried. During the procession many of the participants flagellate themselves as a show of honor and sacrifice towards Hussein.

Security is extremely tight in Karbala following two years of Ashoura attacks that have left over 230 pilgrims dead. Extremist Sunni groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq have launched repeated attacks against Shiite civilians who they view as heretics and collaborators.

Late Monday, in the town of Abu Sidaa, located about 50 miles northwest of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Shiite family partaking in rituals accompanying Ashoura wounding at least six including three women and a small child.