Shi'ites in Iraq mark Ashura in show of strength

By Mohammed Abbas

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ites in Iraq gathered in their thousands to observe an annual ritual of mourning on Wednesday, an event that has become a show of strength for a majority whose public worship was repressed by Saddam Hussein.

Ashura, the most important day in the Shi'ite calendar, was largely peaceful, guarded by an unprecedented police and army presence three days after a suicide bomber killed 35 pilgrims outside a Baghdad shrine.

At processions of thousands at Baghdad's Kadhimiya shrine and at other holy sites in Iraq men sobbed, cut their scalps with daggers and whipped their backs with chains to mourn the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

A road leading to a golden-domed Mosque at the north Baghdad shrine, scene of the bloody bomb attack Sunday, was again spattered with blood -- but this time it streamed from pilgrims cutting gashes in their heads: a traditional rite of mourning.

Thousands chanted "Haider, Haider" another name for Imam Ali, Imam Hussein's father, to commemorate the slaying of his son in the 7th century battle of Kerbala.

Groups of men, some riding horses, dressed up in medieval military outfits with spiked helmets and chainmail to re-enact the battle between followers of Hussein and his enemy Yazid. Others waved green and red flags. Women wailed.

Huge vats of stew steamed over wood fires on the roadside and a canal was died red to symbolize Hussein's blood.

"OUR HERITAGE"

To tighten security, authorities had forbidden women from entering the entire district of Kadhimiya surrounding the Baghdad shrine, because it is hard for male police officers to search them, but Wednesday the ban was lifted.

A gun attack which wounded four pilgrims in another part of Baghdad late Tuesday underscored the security challenge.

Ashura is the most important and dramatic annual rite distinguishing Shi'ite Muslims from Sunnis and it has become a show of strength for Iraq's long-repressed majority sect.

"In Saddam's time, we were cut off from our history, our culture. Now that's changed. Now we can know our heritage," said Jasim Mohammed, an engineer.

Sunni militants have frequently attacked pilgrims, beginning with 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 worsened in 2006 and 2007.

But like Baghdad, the southern holy city of Kerbala was calm Wednesday, thanks partly to some 20,000 security forces manning checkpoints with bomb detectors and banning cars.

Local officials said 2 million pilgrims marched through the city, about 55,000 of them from overseas, mostly Shi'ite Iran.