The self-flagellation honours the suffering of Imam Hussein
Shias stage anti-US protest
Protests against the US presence in Iraq have been staged by Shias in the central city of Karbala at the climax of a pilgrimage that has attracted up to one million people.
Groups of marchers chanted slogans against a US-imposed government and called for unity among Shias.
Many others hit their backs with flails or cut their heads with swords in ritual self-flagellation.
As the ritual banned under ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continued, a prominent Shia cleric said he had been beaten by US soldiers after being detained near Baghdad on Sunday.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartusi condemned US methods as worse than those employed by Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile US officials, speaking to the Washington Post, said they had underestimated the strength and organisation of the Iraqi Shia and now feared the rise of anti-American Islamic militancy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2969345.stm
