Iraqi Shi'ites Clash in Holy City, One Dead

Iraqi Shi'ites Clash in Holy City, One Dead
Tue October 14, 2003 06:07 AM ET

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Rival Shi'ite Muslims fought in the Iraqi city of Kerbala late on Monday leaving at least one dead in the first armed clashes between Shi'ite groups since the U.S.-led war which ousted Saddam Hussein, witnesses said.

Hospital officials said one Iraqi was killed and 21 were wounded in the clashes, in which both sides were armed with Kalashnikov rifles. But an eyewitness said he saw seven bodies.

The fighting between followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and supporters of moderate cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani erupted around the shrine of Imam Hussein after dark on Monday and continued into the morning.

Iraqi police and Bulgarian soldiers deployed in the city as part of a Polish-led force in central Iraq sealed off the area around the gold-domed shrine on Tuesday and tried to calm the rival groups.

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