Shiites pour into Karbala for pilgrimage

Thousands of Iraqi Shiites on Tuesday gathered in the holy city of Karbala to perform a pilgrimage banned under Saddam Hussein's rule.

With heads, faces, hands and chests bloodied from self-flagellation, they gathered near the tomb of Imam Hussein and chanted in his praise.

They coursed around his gold-domed shrine holding green, black and red flags, singing, "We will not forget his murder."

Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, was killed on a battlefield in Karbala in the seventh century. That battle led to the split between the Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam.

The ritual is meant to commemorate the pain suffered by Imam Hussein when he died.

Other developments

• Retired US general Jay Garner, chief of the civilian administration running Iraq, flew to Sulaimaniya, one of the main cities in the north. Some Arab families in the region say they have been ordered out of their homes as armed Kurds lay claim to property and seek revenge for atrocities under Saddam.
• Mohammed Hamza al-Zubeidi, Saddam's commander of the central Euphrates region and number 18 on the US list of 55 most wanted Iraqis, has been captured in the town of Hilla, east of Karbala, according to American officials.
• The UN Security Council is preparing to debate lifting sanctions on Iraq, as Washington has requested.
• The French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said sanctions that target Iraqi civilians should be lifted.
• In Moscow, a senior foreign ministry official said Russia would insist that UN arms inspectors declare Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction before ending sanctions on the country.
• The head of the US Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, said America should complete most of its humanitarian work in Iraq within a year or two. "We just have to start the process up and then the Iraqi people can use their own oil revenues to rebuild the rest of their country because they're potentially a very rich country."