Snipers and bomb squads were among 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers deployed around southern Iraq's holy Shia city of Kerbala on Wednesday to watch over millions of pilgrims gathered to observe Chehlum. Shias have been travelling by foot to observe the annual rite which is a major test for Iraqi security forces after suspected Sunni Arab insurgents killed 149 pilgrims last year.
Kerbala police chief Major-General Raad Shakir said as many as 7 million pilgrims were expected to be in Kerbala by late on Wednesday, a day before Chehlum reaches its climax.
Aerial pictures of the sprawling city showed a sea of black-clad pilgrims filling the wide avenues and narrow backstreets of the city, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad. "We spent 13 days walking before we arrived yesterday," said 41-year-old Mohammed Salam, who came from southern Basra with his wife, three daughters and two sons.
A suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber killed 63 Chehlum pilgrims in Iskandariya just south of Baghdad on Sunday. Another pilgrim was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, police said, while three more died on Monday. All public transport has been banned within a 25 km (15 miles) radius of Kerbala. Militants in the past have used horses and carts, bicycles and motorbikes in bomb attacks in Iraq.
About 600 female security staff will search women pilgrims after a spate of suicide bombings carried out by women. Police distributed leaflets warning people not to eat or drink from unauthorised vendors. More than 850 health department officials would oversee meals provided to pilgrims, they said.