Baghdad : Tens of thousands of Iraqi security forces were deployed Tuesday in the area between Iraq’s capital Baghdad and the holy Shrine city of Karbala for the Shiite religious occasion of Ashura.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iraq and other countries, including Iran, converged on Karbala, some 110 km south from Baghdad, to commemorate Ashura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad, who was killed and buried in Karbala in 680 AD, Xinhua reported.
Ashura, meaning “ten” in Arabic, takes place on the 10th day of Muharam, the first month in the Islamic lunar calendar.
During the past few days, Iraqi authorities deployed more than 25,000 policemen and soldiers at dozens of checkpoints in and around Karbala, in addition to 1,500 Shiite militiamen who joined the battles against the extremist Sunni Islamic State (IS) militant group, an Al Qaeda offshoot.
Since June 10, the IS militants have advanced in several predominantly Sunni provinces and seized swathes of territories. The extremist militants recently carried out several major attacks to seize the town of Ameriyat al-Fallujah, some 40 km west of Baghdad, but they failed due to the stubborn resistance of its residents and some security forces.
Ameriyat al-Fallujah is the last major town ahead of Baghdad that is under government control, and is also located some 60 km north of Karbala. If the militants seize the town, they will be closer to both the Iraqi capital and the holy Shiite city, can cut the road between the two cities, and pound both the cities with artillery and mortars.