Tight security as Shiites converge on Baghdad for rituals

BAGHDAD — Throngs of Shiite Muslims converged on a shrine in north Baghdad on Saturday for annual commemoration rituals under heavy security after a string of deadly attacks in the Iraqi capital.

Much of the city was on lockdown for the climax of the rites to mark the death of a revered figure in Shiite Islam, with Baghdad’s security forces looking to deter Sunni militant groups which often target Iraq’s majority community.

Several major roads were closed off and a wide variety of vehicles barred from the streets, as security forces also relied on aerial cover and sniffer dogs.

Organisers say millions of pilgrims were expected to visit the shrine in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of north Baghdad between Saturday and Sunday, when the commemoration rituals are to climax, though the figure could not be independently verified.

For days worshippers from across Baghdad, and the rest of the country, have been walking to Kadhimiyah, site of a shrine dedicated to Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, who died in 799 AD.

Sunni militants regard Shiites as apostates and, as in previous years, multiple attacks have targeted worshippers in the run-up to the Imam Kadhim commemorations.

Three bombings in the capital, including two carried out by suicide attackers, on Thursday killed 21 people, while mortar fire on Friday struck a district adjacent to Kadhimiyah, killing three more.

The unrest comes as Iraq grapples with a protracted surge in bloodshed that has left more than 3,700 people dead so far this year and fuelled fears the country is slipping back into all-out conflict.

Friday’s deadly violence struck in the capital and the restive northern province of Nineveh, leaving 17 people dead and 25 others wounded, security and medical officials said.

Mortar fire in north Baghdad killed three people, while two men were shot dead in the west of the capital.

The mortar rounds slammed into the Zahra neighbourhood adjacent to Kadhimiyah.

In Nineveh province, north of the capital, four more people were killed on Friday, including two senior police officers, officials said, while attacks elsewhere north of Baghdad killed eight others.

Violence has surged in the past year to its highest level since 2008, while anti-government fighters control an entire city a short drive from Baghdad and parts of another.

The latest attacks come as Iraq’s political parties jostle to build alliances and form a government after April polls that left incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki in the driver’s seat to remain in office for a third term.

The authorities have trumpeted security operations against militants, saying on Friday that they killed 35 more insurgents, and blame external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria for the surge in violence.

Analysts and diplomats, however, say the Shiite-led government must do more to reach out to disgruntled minority Sunnis and undermine support for militancy.