2.5 million pilgrims end Ashuraa rituals

KARBALA / IraqiNews.com: Nearly two and a half million pilgrims, including a half million women, have ended the rituals of the Ashuraa visit, an official source from Karbala province said on Wednesday. “Pilgrims have finished Twereej running, thus ending the Ashuraa visit,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. The Twereej running is a popular custom in the Ashuraa visit. Shiites commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein Ibn Ali, his brother and friends in Karbala in the battle of Taf on Muharram 10, 61 (October 10, 680 AD on the Gregorian calendar). Karbala, with an estimated population of 572,300 people in 2003, is the capital of the province and is considered to be one of Shiite Muslims’ holiest cities. The city, 110 km south of Baghdad, is one of Iraq’s wealthiest, profiting both from religious visitors and agricultural produce, especially dates. At the center of the old city is Masjid al-Hussein, the tomb of Hussein Ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad by his daughter Fatima al-Zahraa and Ali Ibn Abi Taleb. Imam Hussein’s tomb is a place of pilgrimage for many Shiite Muslims, especially on the anniversary of the battle, the Day of Ashuraa. Many elderly pilgrims travel there to await death, as they believe the tomb to be one of the gates to paradise. On April 14, 2007, a car bomb exploded about 600 ft (200 m) from the shrine, killing 47 and wounding over 150. SS (S)/SR 1