KARBALA, April 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Huge crowds of ecstatic Shiites surging through the holy city of Karbala on Wednesday, April 23, chanted slogans against a U.S.-imposed government in the second day of such protests coinciding with a major pilgrimage.

"No to an American government, no to Chalabi," the Shiites shouted, referring to Ahmad Chalabi, the pro-U.S. leader of the Iraqi National Congress, who has returned to Iraq after decades of exile with eyes on power.

"No to all Chalabis, no to any military government," read one banner in English at Wednesday's demonstration. Another sign urged Shiites to build "unity" in the country.

Chalabi, who had been in a U.S. exile for long years, did not have a broader base of support among the Iraqis who have fears of a puppet government to be in place instead of an independent one with real powers.

Other slogans chanted included: "No to occupation," "America and Israel are one and the same," and "We refuse American advice."

Israel still occupies Palestinian and Syrian territories since 1967, despite all peace efforts regionally and internationally exerted.

Many religious leaders in Iraq also expressed belief that the U.S. forces launched war against Iraq to secure Israel's defense and maintain a tight grip on the country's oil riches.

Fartusi, who had called on the occupation forces to get out of Iraq, said he was detained and beaten by U.S. forces.

Bush himself appeared unconcerned at the Shi'ite religious mobilization. "I love the stories about people saying, 'Isn't it wonderful to be able to express our religion, the Shia religion, on a pilgrimage...' It made my day to read that," Bush told Newsweek.

Some protesters made their own banners, such as Raad Hussein al-Wan, who came to the pilgrimage by foot from Baghdad, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of here.

"Only the Hawza can guide us," his sign said, referring to the central school of Shiite scholars based in another Iraqi holy city, Najaf.

The U.S. vehemently rejected Iraq could be an Islamic state.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population, many hammering their chests and beating their heads backs with chains, are in Karbala to mourn Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, who was beheaded in 680 AD.

The ritual was banned under the 24-year rule of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government, which blocked large gatherings of Iraq's majority Shiite.

An Iran-bases Shiite Muslim Iraqi opposition group also said that Iraq does not need the U.S civil administration headed by Jay Garner and power should be handed over to the Iraqi people.

"We don't believe Garner's presence is needed," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, deputy head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution Iraq (SAIRI), told journalists during a press conference in Karabala.

He said the pilgrimage held in Kerbala "proved that Iraqis can run their own affairs" as it went off peacefully.

Hakim rejected the U.S. presence in Iraq as an "occupation" but said "resistance will not be by military resistance."

SAIRI's armed wing, the Badr Brigade "has no intention nor determination to confront coalition forces or other forces linked to it," he said.

He said the Badr Brigade was present both in Iraqi cities and in Iran with its weapons, but refused to disclose its size.

The United States, apparently alarmed at the possibility of Iraq's majority Shiites taking their lead from neighboring Iran, said it had warned Tehran against "interfering" with its co-religionists in Iraq.

"We've made clear to Iran that we would oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, adding that infiltration of agents to destabilize the Shi'ite population would clearly fall into that category."

Retired U.S. general Jay Garner, in charge of reconstruction in Iraq, told a news conference in the Kurdish-controlled Arbil earlier in the day that he thought the bulk of Shiites were "very glad they are where they are right now."

Garner was speaking in Arbil in the Kurdish-controlled north, where he is warmly regarded for his role in helping Kurds set up their autonomous zone after the 1991 Gulf war.

The Washington Post on Wednesday quoted Bush administration officials as saying they had focused so much on ousting Saddam that they had not given much thought to how the ensuing power vacuum would be filled.

The officials said the administration had underestimated the strength of the Shiite majority and were not in a position to prevent the possible rise of an anti-American, Islamic “fundamentalist” government.

The ability of Shi'ite clerics to smoothly organize the pilgrimage has underscored their influence and strength in postwar Iraq and suggests they may be better organized than previously thought.

In the meanwhile, oil flowed from Iraq's southern oilfields for the first time since the country was invaded by U.S.-led forces last month, according to the U.S. military.