MIDDLE EAST

 

 There is a fairly contained fury in the crowd. Ambulances are still racing through the streets. There's a measure of calm being restored but not completely by any means. Anyone who is an outsider is immediately treated as a figure of suspicion. An Iranian here in my hotel who was injured in the explosion was headbutted by the crowd, and he was at severe risk of being killed even as he was being taken into an ambulance. People brought out their ceremonial swords and tried to stab the man. We have no firm idea of casualties, not even the authorities do. There's a theory these explosives were placed in piles of rubbish around here and there was a frantic search for more devices after the blasts. We saw a number of injured on wooden carts, among them many women and children, as this was a family occasion. Many had feared that this religious festival would be targeted. The Coalition believe al-Qaeda are trying to foment a civil war here and the co-ordinated nature of this attack lends credibility to the theory. This is the apparition haunting Iraq since the coalition came here. The fear was the deep ethnic and religious divisions would be opened by somebody like al-Qaeda and there would be a civil war here.

Photo: Even those not hurt physically were left in shock at the attacks

Jo Floto: In the mosque in a big Shia district we are hearing of more casualties but it's a very confused picture. There is a history of attacks using rockets and mortars in this city. Two major hotels in Baghdad were attacked like that and the arsenal is available to anyone who cares to look for it. What we're seeing here for the first time is politicians sat round a table and compromising - something wholly new for Iraq and that could be a factor, but this is such a key day in the Shia calendar. You couldn't pick a worse day to attack the Shia community or a better one to provoke discord among the Muslims of Iraq.

Carolyne Hawley: We've heard a series of explosions. One was apparently at the main shrine in Baghdad. There are casualties but we're not exactly sure what caused it. There are ambulances at the scene. A strike at almost the same time as the explosions in Karbala. This is no coincidence - militants are trying to target this religious festival. Militants have often struck on very important and sacred days. When you speak to Iraqis they want to keep things together and they blame outsiders, saying these kind of things could not be the work of Iraqis. The mood will be one of shock at what's happened, despite the fears this festival could be targeted. The clerics will urge their followers to stay calm. After so many years of conflict the people want to stay safe and have an ordinary normal life here, so I think the aim will be to keep things together.

Barbara Plet: People have stopped running now. Some of them are hiding, others are standing in the street. Men, possibly plain-clothes security forces, are trying to establish order. They're going through boxes by the pavement. It seems the bomb was in a rubbish bin. Six explosions were heard as well as some gunfire, and I saw a flash as one of the bombs went off. Casualties are being removed from the scene of the blast in wooden carts normally used for transporting luggage. They're bloodied, possibly limbs have been lost. The security presence has been tight for the festival of Ashura but tens of thousands of people are milling around and it's almost impossible to check them all.

Paul Wood: A few minutes ago, a series of explosions hit the centre of Karbala, which is packed with pilgrims for the festival. We counted six separate explosions. The last explosion was just a few seconds ago. It began with some automatic fire about 200 metres from the position where we were standing. That presumably was the guards, the security guards for this religious festival trying to stop the bombers from getting near to the pilgrims. People are fleeing through the streets in panic. I saw a couple of people who appeared to be injured, whether that was from bomb debris. In fact I can see somebody now being carried in a makeshift stretcher made out of a blanket rushed through the streets to one of the ambulances here. Another man is semi-conscious being dragged by two people through the road. One or two people were also crushed in the stampede. I can see women trying to get children away. The centre of Karbala was absolutely packed. This is apparently what everybody feared, that somebody would try to target this religious festival. The coalition has long feared that al-Qaeda or the foreign fighters, whichever groups have been carrying out what are described as terrorist attacks, would try to bring about a sectarian conflict and use the festival at Karbala to try to achieve that end. There's another wave of panic just hit the crowd, maybe something else has gone off.