US warns Iran as Shi'ites show strength in Iraq

Huge crowds of ecstatic Shi'ites surged through the holy city of Kerbala yesterday, winding up a pilgrimage that signalled to Washington they will be a powerful force in the new Iraq.

The United States, apparently alarmed at the possibility of Iraq's majority Shi'ites taking their lead from neighbouring Iran, said it had warned Tehran against "interfering" with its co-religionists in Iraq.

"We've made clear to Iran that we would oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "Infiltration of agents to destabilise the Shi'ite population would clearly fall into that category."

The US believes Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and are working to advance Iranian interests.

In a fresh sign of tensions on the Iran-Iraq border, an Iranian opposition militia based in Iraq said it had captured four Iranian soldiers after a clash at the frontier.

The People's Mujahideen, a militia that has been striving to overthrow Iran's Islamic government for two decades, said Iranian soldiers had attacked near Mandali, about 130 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

The pilgrimage in the southern city of Kerbala, long banned under Saddam, was marked by slogans denouncing the US presence. Despite their joy at the overthrow of President Saddam, a Sunni, many of the pilgrims demanded US troops get out of Iraq, a sentiment echoed by some residents of Baghdad.

Shi'ite leaders said they expected a million or more people to attend the pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was killed there 13 centuries ago. Shi'ites, who make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population, beat their chests, slashed their scalps with swords and whipped themselves with chains as they marked one of the most sacred festivals of their calendar.

US President George W. Bush appeared unconcerned at Shi'ite religious mobilisation."I love the stories about people saying, 'Isn't it wonderful to be able to express our religion, the Shia religion, on a pilgrimage...' It made my day to read that," Bush told Newsweek.

Retired US general Jay Garner, in charge of reconstruction of Iraq, told a news conference he thought the bulk of Shi'ites were "very glad they are where they are right now".

Garner was speaking in Arbil in the Kurdish-controlled north, where he is warmly regarded for his role in helping Kurds set up their autonomous zone after the 1991 Gulf war.

Kurdish and US officials announced plans for a commission to resolve disputes between Arabs and thousands of Kurds who were displaced from their homes under Saddam.

"We have this small moment in time where we can make all of Iraq democratic," Garner, who has been feted in the north by crowds showering him with flower petals, told his hosts.

The Washington Post yesterday also quoted Bush administration officials as saying they had focused so much on ousting Saddam they had not given much thought to how the ensuing power vacuum would be filled. They said the administration had underestimated the strength of the Shi'ite majority and were not in a position to prevent the possible rise of an anti-US, fundamentalist government.

The ability of Shi'ite clerics to smoothly organise the pilgrimage has underscored their influence in postwar Iraq and suggests they may be better organised than previously thought.

In Tehran, Iraqi Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim said he was ready to work with the US and others to establish stability in his shattered homeland.

But Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and one of the most powerful forces among Iraq's Shi'ites, said the Kerbala pilgrimage showed Iraqis were able to govern themselves.

He said there was no direct parallel between Iraq and Iran's Islamic republic. "We should not make a copy of the Iranian revolution and establish it in Iraq," he said.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, the first cabinet member from Britain or the US to visit Iraq since US-led forces took over Baghdad on April 9, said Saddam was probably still in the country.