Tight security for Iraqi Shi'ite rite

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites flocked to holy sites on Tuesday to observe a religious rite amid tight security, days after a bomber killed at least 35 pilgrims.

Men and boys marched with blood streaming down their faces after cutting their scalps, part of the ritual of mourning for the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, slain in the 7th century battle of Kerbala.

Many wore green or red costumes, dressing as the followers of Hussein and his enemy Yazid for re-enactments of the battle, streaming into a Baghdad shrine to the beat of drums.

"Security is tighter than last year. You can see that in the number of checkpoints and police. We have a stronger government now," said Ali Aziz, a pilgrim making his way to north Baghdad's Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine, where the bomber struck on Sunday.

"Yes, there was a bombing a few days ago. But that was unexpected and the police are ready for it now," he said.

In an unprecedented security move, authorities forbade women from entering the entire district of Kadhimiya surrounding the Baghdad shrine, because it is hard for the overwhelmingly male police force to search them. Scores were barred at a checkpoint.

"My home is in Kadhimiya. Am I supposed to stand out here with my kids in the street?" asked a woman who gave her name as Um Hamid. She said she had been visiting friends outside the district overnight and could not get home.

Authorities announced on Sunday they would impose a ban on women attending the annual rite, hours after the suicide bomber struck. Initial reports said Sunday's bomber was female, although the government later said he was male.

A gun attack on pilgrims in another part of Baghdad late on Tuesday underscored the tough challenge of securing religious festivals. Gunmen fired on a procession of Shi'ite pilgrims in southeastern Baghdad's Zaafaraniya district, wounding four.

WAILING, SOBS

The Ashura holiday is the most important and dramatic of the annual rites that distinguish Shi'ite Muslims from Sunnis. Tuesday was the end of a nine-day preparatory period before the anniversary on Wednesday, when Shi'ite mosques ring with the wailing of women and the quiet sobs of men.

Like other Shi'ite holidays, Ashura has become a show of strength for the community which makes up a majority in Iraq.

Observances have been attended by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who repressed Shi'ite religious observances.

Sunni militants have frequently staged attacks on pilgrims, beginning with coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad and Kerbala during the first post-Saddam Ashura in 2004 that killed more than 160 people and heralded the sectarian bloodshed that ravaged the country in 2006 and 2007.

Violence has fallen sharply across the country since then but shootings and bomb attacks remain common. A roadside bomb in southern Baghdad's Doura district killed four police commandos overnight, police said.

In Kirkuk, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car shot dead an off-duty policeman on Monday. In the nearby town of Sekhra, an off-duty Iraqi soldier was killed in a separate drive-by shooting.

Police on Tuesday maintained checkpoints throughout the narrow streets and alleys of Kadhimiya, searching pilgrims nearly every 50 metres.

EXPLOSIVE DETECTORS

In Kerbala, the shrine city southwest of Baghdad where Hussein's remains are housed in a golden mosque, the government deployed 20,000 soldiers and police to protect worshippers, said Major-General Ali al-Ghirari, head of military operations there.

"We put in place a well-set security plan two days ago," he told Reuters. "We have forbidden vehicles inside the old city. We distributed explosive detectors (to checkpoints) on the roads coming from Baghdad, Hilla and Najaf."

Police and soldiers were forbidden from eating food from unlicensed kiosks along the pilgrimage route, after some members of the security forces were deliberately poisoned in past years.

The pilgrimage has taken on a political aspect three weeks before elections of provincial councils, which appoint powerful regional governors.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, ailing leader of the ISCI party which controls many regional governments in the Shi'ite south but is competing against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, staged a rally in Baghdad on Tuesday attended by thousands.

"In the new Iraq no one should control all power by himself," he said.

(Additional reporting by Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala; writing by Peter Graff and Tim Cocks; Editing by Janet Lawrence)