Baghdad: Snipers firing from rooftops and a cemetery killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens on Sunday in a series of attacks on a Shiite religious procession that drew hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Baghdad.
The ''terrorist assaults'' took place when the pilgrims were walking through Sunni areas on their way to the shrine of Imam Moussa Kadhim, one of 12 Shiite saints, Health Ministry spokesman Qassim Allawi said.
In one neighborhood, security forces and Shiite militiamen in flak jackets were seen exchanging gunfire with unseen assailants who were firing from houses and buildings. Some of the attackers were firing from behind tombstones in a Sunni cemetery.
The violence defied a weekend driving ban to prevent car bombs amid a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks by Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq since the February 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.
The sectarian warfare, along with the deadly Sunni Arab insurgency, has become the biggest challenge for the US-backed national unity government.
Thousands of extra US troops also have been deployed in recent weeks as part of a security crackdown in the capital as many fear the bloodshed, which is claiming about 100 lives a day, could lead to an all-out civil war.
The ceremonies at the shrine in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah continued despite the attacks, which Allawi said occurred in three or four neighborhoods at least a mile away.
Shiite pilgrims, wearing white shrouds to symbolize their willingness to die for Islam, chanted ''God bless (Prophet) Muhammad and his descendants,'' as they converged on the area.
Shiites believe that Kadhim, who died in 799, was poisoned in prison by a Sunni caliph. He is buried inside the sprawling golden-domed shrine along with his grandson.
''We heed your call, Oh Imam!'' the pilgrims sang before entering the compound, beating their chest and flagellating themselves with steel chains in a traditional Shiite expression of grief.
Last year, the government said about 1,000 people died during the Imam Kadhim commemoration when rumors of suicide bombers triggered a mass stampede on a bridge across the Tigris River.
It was the biggest single day death toll since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Saddoun Abu al-Ula said 17 pilgrims were killed during Sunday's attacks. He also said 253 were injured, most in falls as they ran in panic. Police also said four militants, including two snipers, were killed.
''We are responsible to make this work, despite these challenges,'' Abu al-Ula said. Scores of militants were arrested, including some of those who fired on the pilgrims and others who were planning to, he added.
Reporters saw women in black ''abayas,'' an Islamic female gown, helping each other as they ran for cover. Many took refuge under an overpass, ducking in fear at the sound of gunshots.
A cleric in a dark gray robe and white turban, holding a gun, was seen being pushed away from the scene by a security personnel.
''I was walking and someone got shot in front of me. It wasn't random fire, it was a clear sniper attack,'' said Mohammed Jassim, 32.
He said he could hear the faint crack of the shots despite the noise from the procession. ''People panicked and started yelling 'it came from here, no from there.'''
Fadhil al-Sharaa, an aide to Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claimed some 1 million people attended the procession, but other officials were more conservative, putting the figure at between 200,000 and 300,000.
Shiites were prevented from mustering huge crowds at religious ceremonies during Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime. But since Saddam's ouster in 2003, Shiite politicians and religious leaders have encouraged huge turnouts as a demonstration of the majority sect's power.
The Kadhim ritual is taking place during a major US-Iraqi security operation aimed at curbing the Sunni-Shiite violence.
Nearly 12,000 US and Iraqi troop reinforcements are coming in to take control of this city of 6 million people neighborhood by neighborhood.
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