At least 31 dead in Iraq after Ashura stampede

KERBALA - At least 31 people died and another 100 were wounded on Tuesday during the Shia Muslim religious rituals of Ashura in the Iraqi city of Kerbala, a Health Ministry spokesman said, in what an official at the Imam Hussein shrine described as a stampede.

The death toll released by the Iraqi Health Ministry was expected to rise, with at least 10 people in critical condition. The ministry did not disclose how they had been killed but the shrine official told Reuters the stampede took place at the entrance to the ornate building.

It would be Iraq's deadliest stampede in recent history during Ashura, whose commemorative marches had previously been targeted by Sunni extremist groups.

Ashura marks the day when, according to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein was killed in battle in the year 680 by the forces of the Caliph Yazid. Thousands of Shia Muslim pilgrims from around the world converge each year on Kerbala, the site of the battle.

The battle at Kerbala, waged over the leadership of the Islamic community, is one of the defining events in the schism between Shias and Sunni Muslims.

The rituals typically draw large crowds who gather at the shrine of Imam Hussein to commemorate his slaying. The rituals involve self-flagellation, with crowds of mourners striking themselves and some lacerating their heads with blades. Stampedes have occurred in the past.

On Tuesday, the hundreds of thousands of black-clad worshippers made their way to his gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine, around 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, carrying flags and crying out, "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Oh Hussein!"

The stampede broke out as the massive crowds pressed forward.

Day of mourning

Iraq is majority Shia, but under ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, the vast majority of Ashura commemorations were banned.

Now the day is a national holiday, and devout Shia pilgrims travel from neighbouring Iran and Gulf countries, as well as Pakistan and India, to mark it in Iraq.

Streets across the country were shuttered Tuesday to allow for funeral-style processions and elaborate re-enactments of the Battle of Kerbala.

Mourners swung large black flags with "Hussein" written in red, wailing loudly and singing religious hymns praising him.

Some whipped their backs and chests to demonstrate their sorrow.

Others, inlcuding young boys, cut incisions into their foreheads with scalpels or large sabres, leaving streams of blood cascading down their faces.

After reaching the Imam Hussein shrine, some pilgrims set fire to a tent to symbolise the burning of Hussein's camp by Yazid's forces.

Similar ceremonies took place in the capital Baghdad, in the southern city of Basra and in Iraq's second holy city Najaf, where the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law Ali is buried.

After Saddam's ouster in 2003 by the US-led invasion, Iraq was rocked by years of intercommunal fighting.

The spectre of sectarian violence made such processions deadly for years to come.

In 2005, at least 965 pilgrims heading to the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad during a different holiday died after rumours of a suicide bomber in the crowd sparked a mass stampede.

And in 2013, nearly 40 Shia pilgrims were killed across various Iraq cities in a series of attacks on Ashura.

The following year, the Islamic State group swept across a third of Iraq and carried out mass attacks against civilian populations, including Shias.

Iraq declared victory against IS nearly two years ago, but the group continues to wage hit-and-run attacks in remote parts of the country.