A Shi’ite religious ritual unfolded amid heavy security in the sacred city of Kerbala on Monday, as the spectre of a sectarian civil war stalked Iraq on the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Nearly 10,000 troops and police guarded hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims gathered for a religious event that Sunni Arab suicide bombers have targeted in the past. The fear of fresh communal bloodshed and the failure of Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders to form a national unity government that could avert civil war underlined Iraq’s instability three years after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow. Full Story
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