Throngs defy attacks to deck Iraqi holy city in black

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Chanting and flailing themselves in mourning for Imam Hussein, hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims defied suicide bombs and bone-crushing crowds to gather in Iraq's holy city of Kerbala Thursday.

The Shi'ite-led government warned that the religious rite of Arbain, which culminates Friday and has drawn Shi'ite pilgrims from around the world since Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, would be a target for attacks.

A female suicide bomber Monday killed more than 40 pilgrims as they were walking from just north of Baghdad to Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) to the south, where the rite takes place. Another 20 were killed in Kerbala Wednesday when a bomb on a cart tore through a crowd.

"The terrorist groups are gathering together all their capabilities to launch attacks during Arbain and after it," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said in a statement. "The coming days will see these terrorist groups carrying out other attempts whenever they get a chance."

Shi'ite gatherings once banned by Saddam have been a prime target of Sunni Islamist insurgents like al Qaeda since the 2003 U.S. invasion pitched Iraq into a ferocious sectarian war.

The sectarian fighting has fallen away dramatically in the past two years, but a stubborn insurgency continues to carry out suicide bombings against Shi'ite targets and has also launched a series of major assaults in Baghdad since August that are aimed at undermining the government before a March 7 election.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has staked much of his hopes for re-election on the fall in overall violence. But the inability of Iraqi security forces to protect pilgrims from attack could hurt his efforts to emerge from the vote as the dominant leader of Iraq's majority Shi'ite nation.

"I will not vote for a government that cannot protect the citizens and cannot find solutions for its security problems," civil servant Khazaal Malallah, 45, said in Kerbala.

"It is a disabled government which cannot do its duty. It is a government of rhetoric. I will vote for those capable of running the nation and achieving our dreams of a peaceful life."

Arbain marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed in a 7th century battle in Kerbala. Shi'ites believe his remains are entombed there. The city was cloaked in black because of the robes worn by pilgrims, and bedecked in a sea of flags.

The lack of airtight security is not for wont of trying.

Around 30,000 troops and police have been deployed to protect visitors. The head of the provincial council, Mohammed al-Moussawi, estimated 7 million pilgrims had visited the city in the past 10 days, including from regional countries and Iran.

He said that 4,300 tents had been set up to provide food, motorbike-propelled carts had been banned and 25 medical teams, 10 mobile clinics had been deployed with 65 ambulances on call. Two units of counterterrorism forces were dispatched from Baghdad.

"There are security breaches, but they are less and less than in the past," said 26-year-old Mohammed Risheg in Kerbala.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Richard Williams)