Two million pilgrims converge on Karbala

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims worshipped at Karbala's holy shrine today - chanting, dancing, even slashing cuts on their bodies in a frenzied religious ritual that had been banned for decades under Saddam Hussein's regime.

Up to two million Shiites from Iraq, Iran and other countries were converging on the city of Karbala - site of the 7th-century martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the sect's most revered saints. The annual pilgrimage culminates Thursday.

The march comes as Shiites are flexing newfound strength since the fall of Saddam, whose mostly Sunni Muslim government severely repressed Iraq's Shiite majority. Shiites have been setting up local administrations to re-establish order, and religious leaders have emerged as key sources of political power, especially in southern Iraq.

At least one leading Shiite figure has called for the Karbala gathering to be used as a protest against US domination of Iraq.

In an apparent attempt to avoid any friction with the pilgrims, no American troops appeared in the city. At one of the entrances to Karbala, members of the Free Iraqi Forces, the military wing of the US-backed opposition Iraqi National Congress, were seen checking cars. Some wore black headbands, a symbol of mourning.

The pilgrims included men and women of all ages - the men clad mostly white robes and headbands, the women cloaked head to toe in traditional black dress.

The mood in the sacred city was frenetic and freewheeling.

Two groups of 100 men in white robes slashed their heads with long sharp swords in a self-mutilation ritual Tuesday, spraying blood on those near them. They waved the blades at the shrine, screaming with joy. Some were taken away in cars to get medical treatment, while others washed up later at a traditional Iraqi bathhouse.

"People used to be detained if they were seen beating their chests near or inside the shrine," said Ouza Qateh, 42, who walked from Basra to Nasiriyah and then drove to Karbala to make the pilgrimage. "There were practicing terrorism and fear against Shiites."

Packs of men circled the city's main shrines, creating a vortex of humanity. Some worshippers carried photos of famous Shiite clerics.

Inside the shrine, groups of the faithful beat their chests and screamed:

"You dirty Saddam, where are you so that we can fight you?"

Ahmed Abdel-Whaed, 28, of Baghdad, said, "He who dared to march ... used to disappear." Abdel-Whaed had just returned to Iraq from Jordan, where he fled two years ago out of fear of persecution.

Water trucks were brought in to help the crowd - which already may have surpassed a million people - weather Tuesday's 32-degree Celsius (90-degree Fahrenheit) heat and blazing sun. Roving watermen sprayed the worshippers to keep them cool.

A portrait of Saddam Hussein that used to hang on the main Imam Hussein shrine was gone, underlining the new sense of freedom enjoyed by Iraqi Shiites.

The roads in the area were choked with pilgrims, some of them limping from long journeys. Two men crawled on their stomachs into one shrine; months ago, they had vowed to crawl into Karbala if the Americans ousted Saddam.

"We were prohibited from visiting these shrines for a long time by the Baath Party and their agents," Abed Ali Ghilan told Associated Press Television News in Karbala. "This year we thank God for ridding us of the dictator Saddam Hussein and for letting us visit these shrines."

Saddam's regime had permitted the annual pilgrimages, but prohibited people from coming on foot or engaging in the ritual slashings, and monitored the participants as well as centers of Shiite rebellion in Najaf and Karbala.

Despite their newfound freedoms, rifts have erupted among the Shiites since Saddam's fall. Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a cleric who had opposed Saddam's rule, was hacked to death April 10 in the holy city of Najaf along with a pro-Saddam cleric with whom he appeared as a gesture of reconciliation.

Al-Jazeera television reported that some senior clerics did not show up today, possibly due to security concerns. They included the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and Muktada al-Sadr.

Al-Sistani was one of several clerics reportedly threatened by the mob in Najaf, which was reportedly led by al-Sadr and made up of members of Saddam's Baath Party.