Sat Apr 10, 6:35 AM ET

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By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Shi'ite pilgrims gathered in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala on Saturday for a major religious ceremony as radical Shi'ite fighters and Polish troops exchanged rocket and mortar fire on the outskirts.

Reuters Photo AFP Slideshow: U.S. Military

Militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were controlling access to Kerbala, 70 miles south of Baghdad, and militia leaders have ordered occupying forces to keep their distance until religious ceremonies end on Sunday.

U.S. authorities in Iraq (news - web sites) say more than a million pilgrims are in and around Kerbala for the ceremonies of Arbain, but large groups of pilgrims were not yet massing on the streets.

Iraq's U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, has said the safety of pilgrims cannot be guaranteed during Arbain. Last month suicide attacks in Baghdad and Kerbala on the Shi'ite occasion of Ashura killed 171 people. Washington said the attacks were masterminded by a Jordanian linked to al Qaeda to try to spark civil war.

Iraqi police, whom U.S.-led forces had previously entrusted with keeping order during Arbain, were nowhere to be seen.

Streets were being patrolled by Sadr's Mehdi Army and another Shi'ite armed group, the Badr Brigade, as well as local guards, some employed by the clerical authorities. Militiamen waved pilgrims to the sides of streets for fear of sniper fire.

Some ordinary pilgrims blamed the U.S.-led forces in Iraq for the new disorder that appeared to have discouraged many from traveling to the city. Many also criticized Sadr's uprising.

Some clerical authorities voiced disquiet: "Because of the clashes the police have disappeared, leaving a big gap in our security plan," said Afdhal al-Shami, head of security for Kerbala's Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines.

"Some parties tried to take the place of the police but we still can feel the effect -- we are worried that someone will try to exploit this security breach."

FAITHFUL FEAR TO TRAVEL

The fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his Sunni-dominated secular regime a year ago ended decades of oppression for the 60-percent Shi'ite majority and left them free to observe major festivals like Ashura and Arbain, marking one of the founding events of Shi'ite Islam in a seventh century battle near Kerbala.

But many pilgrims, including many from Shi'ite-ruled Iran, seemed to have stayed away this year. Fighting has flared in the past week, involving Sadr's Shi'ite forces as well as disgruntled Sunnis who have long fought the U.S.-led occupiers.

Reuters journalists heard rocket and mortar fire from the outskirts of the city where the Mehdi Army and the Poles have been engaged in skirmishes.

A week of clashes in and around Kerbala alone has killed 69 people, mainly Iraqis, and wounded more than 100, Mahdi Masnawi, the city's director-general of health, told Reuters.

"It is the innocent people who are getting killed here every day," said Ahmad Mohammad, a member of the force that protects Kerbala's shrines, some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest.

"The clashes have affected the security efforts terribly. Instead of focusing on the main job to protect the pilgrims from attacks like that at Ashura, we have to make sure now that they won't be caught in the crossfire."

There was little celebration among pilgrims at the militia's presence and very few chanted the pro-Sadr slogans that have been heard from his supporters in other cities this week.

"All our family wanted to come but at the last minute the women and children had to turn back because of the fighting," said Hussein Radhi, a pilgrim from Baghdad.

"Coalition forces have ignited this whole crisis on purpose," said Hamid Ha'eri an Iraqi returning from Iran.

"But those who are fighting in these holy days are not Shi'ite. They are fighting for their own political interests."

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