AT LEAST 70 people died and more than 100 were wounded this weekend as gunmen from a messianic cult known as the Soldiers of Heaven fought troops in the southern Iraqi cities of Basra and Nasiriya.

The street battles were the first serious test of security in Basra since Britain transferred its responsibilites to Iraqi police and soldiers last month.

The cult attacked as more than 2m Muslim pilgrims prepared to converge on the holy city of Karbala yesterday, many beating, whipping and cutting themselves in a ritualistic frenzy to mark Ashura, the most important Shi’ite religious ceremony of the year.

Cult members were said to have mingled with the crowds before opening fire on pilgrims and police.

During the worst of the clashes, the Soldiers of Heaven attacked government buildings and security forces on Friday in an attempt to disrupt the celebrations of their fellow Shi’ites. Sporadic fighting continued yesterday.

A statement from Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, said that a number of “heretics” from “this profane group, cloaking themselves in religion” had been detained after shooting at Ashura processions in Basra and trying to seize government premises.

Police said that Ahmed Hassan, the cult’s leader who called himself “the Yemeni”, had been killed alongside some of his followers. The cult’s members believe Hassan is a descendant of the 12th imam, who disappeared in 878 but will reappear when the world descends into chaos to restore peace on earth.

The Ashura ceremonies were banned under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime, which oppressed the Shi’ite majority in Iraq. They mark the slaying more than 13 centuries ago of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein near Karbala.

Yesterday, the last of the 10-day festival, pilgrims from the largely Shi’ite population of southern Iraq and Iran marched through Karbala in white robes, weeping as they struck their heads with swords and flailed their backs with chains and whips to show their grief at the killing of Imam Hussein.

In one bizarre incident, an actor playing the role of the killer of Imam Hussein was attacked by a crowd.

He was so badly beaten that he returned with an assault rifle. A bystander was killed as Iraqi police tried to subdue the angry actor.

About 25,000 Iraqi police and soldiers were deployed across Karbala, 70 miles south of Baghdad, to protect the sometimes hysterical worshippers. Iraqi helicopters circled over the city, where all vehicles were banned after the violence on Friday.

British troops remain stationed at Basra airport under an agreement that if the government needs support they will be ready to assist.

Yesterday a spokesman for the British Army said that they had not been called in by the Iraqi authorities.

Iraqi forces appeared to have quelled the cult members, who take vows to fight to the death. Security forces in Basra said 60 militants had been arrested and stockpiles of their weapons, ranging from machineguns to mortars, had been seized from two mosques.

In Nasiriya, 20 Soldiers of Heaven were killed along with 20 special forces police, including their commander.

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