"First they killed security guards outside the mosque," he said.
The next year, however, Toor Jan, the leader of the biggest militia, was killed, security collapsed and the Taliban took over.
In all, seven members of the security forces, two local civilians and Vatcher were killed, security officials said.
In the past, especially after an officer has been killed, security forces have swept into villages, and many villagers have been killed in the ensuing battles.
As Q&A producers knew, the 30-year-old spent two years in prison for threatening to kill security and foreign affairs officials.
Amid fears of a repeat of the violence that swept the country when his mother was killed, security forces were put on alert.
Former bodyguards for Iraq's fugitive vice president testified Tuesday that they were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs, as a politically charged trial against the vice president began.
In the days after the pilgrims were killed, security forces for the local government in Karbala conducted raids in Anbar, arrested several people and took them back to Karbala.
Three people, including a Hezbollah official and his aide, were killed, security officials said, in the worst clash in Beirut since May 2008, when Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni neighborhoods after the government tried to dismantle the group's telecommunications network.
In addition to those killed, security forces told AFP that 52 people were wounded in the bombings.
