Partial vehicle ban in Ninewa to secure Shiite visitors

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: Ninewa Operations Command decided on Monday to impose a partial vehicle ban tomorrow to secure Shiite visitors, according to a security source. “The ban will start from 4:00am until 6:00pm on Tuesday (Jan. 25),” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The ban will include Talafar, Sinjar west of Mosul, to secure Shiite visitors,” he added. Swarms of Shiite Muslims visit the mausoleum of Imam al-Hussein Ibn Ali in Karbala, 110 km southwest of Baghdad, to revive the arbaeen, or the anniversary of the 40th day after the death of al-Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and a highly revered figure for Shiite Muslims. Imam al-Hussein and his household were slain in the battle of Taf in the hegira calendar year of 61 (681 AD) by an army of Umayyads upon orders from Yazid Ibn Muaawiya Ibn Abi Sufyan, the second Umayyad caliph. Shiites commemorate the event of arbaeen by undertaking the pilgrimage to Karbala, the site of Imam Hussein’s death, and observe Shiite rites of self-mortification, chanting and drumbeating in procession SH (TP) 768