Pilgrims flee Iraqi city as clashes kill 52

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Police ordered hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to leave the Iraqi city of Kerbala on Tuesday after fierce clashes between security forces and gunmen killed 52 people during a major Shi'ite religious festival.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told state television that reinforcements had been rushed to Kerbala from Baghdad and neighbouring provinces.

Late into the night, the area near two of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines came under heavy fire, a senior Shi'ite official in charge of the holy sites in the city said.

Asked if the gunfire was targeting the revered Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines, the official said: "Yes." He urged the government to immediately bring the situation under control.

A senior security source in Baghdad said 52 people had been killed and 206 wounded in the day-long clashes.

The fighting earlier in the day appeared to be between gunmen loyal to the fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, possibly members of his Mehdi Army militia, and police linked to the rival Shi'ite political movement, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), and its Badr Organisation.

In a sign the violence was spreading, police said five people had been killed hours later in fighting between Mehdi Army militia and supporters of the Badr Organisation in Baghdad. Police said gunmen attacked five SIIC offices in the capital.

Sadr, one of Iraq's most influential clerics, urged calm.

"Moqtada al-Sadr demands calm and asks the Sadrist followers not to take part in the disturbances," Hazem al-Araji, a senior aide to the cleric, told Reuters.