[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] OK, let's talk more about the war on Iraq. CNN's senior international editor Eli Flournoy is with us. And, Eli, you have some great pictures out of Karbala to show our audience.
[Eli Flournoy, Cnn Senior International Editor:] Yes, I think we can show these pictures now. We just established a live signal from Karbala where the Shiite pilgrims have been coming in by literally by the hundreds of thousands. You see we've got some tape on that we're showing now of them in the holy mosque there in Karbala. And as I said, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have been walking from all over Iraq, from Baghdad, walking, you know, dozens of miles in some cases. Here we see the live picture there from outside the mosque, and you can see in the courtyard there they've started to gather.
[Costello:] Yes, and of course this was absolutely forbidden under Saddam's regime.
[Flournoy:] It was. Only very small groups under very controlled circumstances were allowed to go to this holiest of mosques for the Shiite Muslims. And for them, the removal of Saddam Hussein has meant this very, very important pilgrimage for them to this site. And as you can see,...
[Costello:] And something tricky for the Americans in Karbala. Since...
[Flournoy:] Yes.
[Costello:] ... we're talking about that right now, the Shiites are actually controlling the city. They have their own armed guards they're sending out to restore order and they've been very successful.
[Flournoy:] Yes, with the Shiite clerics have their own armed groups who have been working together with them. They have been very adamant about sending out the message for people not to loot, to restore order. So they have been successful in Karbala to get those groups under control and...
[Costello:] Yes, and the Shiites...
[Flournoy:] But it's a problem for the it's a problem for the U.S. military because they don't want the Shiite groups don't want the U.S. military in there, so they're kind of standing back on the outside and hoping that things stay calm.
[Costello:] And the Shiites are sort of wanting to present Karbala as an example of what they can do.
[Flournoy:] Yes.
[Costello:] And the U.S. doesn't want anybody in charge of anything right now because they want to work on creating a democracy within Iraq.
[Flournoy:] Right.
[Costello:] And the Shiites want an Islamic state.
[Flournoy:] That's absolutely right.
[Costello:] So it's a tricky situation.
[Flournoy:] Indeed.
[Costello:] Eli Flournoy, thanks for the pictures, we appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com