BURGEONING HOPE:

Shiites Mark Holy Day Amid Hope, Violence: Attackers kill 54 in Iraq, but there are fewer casualties than feared. Pilgrims flock to shrines as religious rites add to post-election optimism. (T. Christian Miller, February 20, 2005, LA Times)

Despite the violence, the public commemoration of the Ashura holiday added to a sense of hope that has burgeoned since the end of January, when a Shiite-backed political alliance swept to victory in the national assembly election.

"The terrorists will not succeed," said Majeed Abed Kareem, 62, who had traveled a long way from his home in southern Iraq to Karbala to join the celebrations, which had been banned under the regime of Saddam Hussein, a secular Sunni Muslim. [...]

Still, the violence was less than U.S. and Iraqi security forces had feared. During last year's Ashura, as many as 200 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Karbala and Baghdad as suicide bombers weaved into crowds of worshipers and detonated themselves. [...]

To prevent a recurrence of last year's violence, Iraq closed its borders with its Shiite neighbor, Iran, halting streams of pilgrims from joining the celebrations. Iraqi security officials and Shiite religious militias also saturated holy sites throughout Iraq, in some cases shutting off streets to traffic and setting up checkpoints every 30 feet.

Iraqi police commanders hailed their security measures, which were achieved with a minimal U.S. presence.

In Karbala and the northern city of Kirkuk, police announced the capture of nine suspected insurgents, including Harbi abd Khudair, allegedly the leader of a cell in Kirkuk, and Haidar abu Bawari, described as a top aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. Police also began patrolling the city of Fallouja in the Sunni heartland after a three-month absence.

"Our national guard, with the new army, has transformed from a tool in the hand of the tyrant [Hussein] to kill people … to a system which protects people," said Maj. Waleed Fakir Abbas, deputy commander of the Iraqi national guard in Karbala.