IRAQ: Tens of thousands of Shia Muslims marched through the streets of the sacred Iraqi city of Kerbala yesterday to pay their last respects to the worshippers who were killed in the wave of devastating bombings there on Tuesday.
Chanting "God is Greatest", they carried about a dozen coffins through the streets, some laden with flowers, others draped in rugs decorated with verses from the Koran, as black-clad musicians clashed cymbals, banged drums and blew horns.
The funeral procession, led by Kerbala's senior clerics, made its way through the heart of the city towards the mosque of Imam Hussein, one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines, where the bodies were taken inside and the masses of mourners said prayers.
Crowds gathered to watch the procession along the streets and from balconies, shouting "Hussein! Hussein!", invoking the name of a revered Shia martyr, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, killed more than 13 centuries ago.
In a sermon at the mosque a leading cleric urged the crowds not to seek vengeance for the death and destruction meted out in the blasts, which struck as some two million pilgrims were gathered there to mark their holiest day.
"Those who did this want a civil war in Iraq, but we will not be drawn into it," said Ayatollah Hadi al-Muddaresi. "This act against us was an aggression against all Muslims."
As he spoke, hundreds of supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a more extreme Shia cleric who strongly opposes the US-led occupation of Iraq, tried to shout him down, screaming: "We want our revenge against Saddam the infidel and against America." They also chanted "No, No America! Yes, Yes Islam!" but were soon silenced by the rest of the mourners.
After the sermon, the coffins were carried to the nearby shrine of Imam Abbas and from there to the edge of the city, from where they will be taken to the holy city of Najaf, south of Kerbala, where there is a revered Muslim burial ground.
Iranian state television reported that 29 Iranian Shia pilgrims had been killed in the Baghdad and Kerbala blasts.
The mourners in Kerbala were mostly calm, but some showed their anger towards the Americans, who they said had not done enough to protect the Ashura religious processions from attackers. Others laid the blame on extremist Sunni Muslims.
"This attack was carried out by terrorist Wahhabis who don't believe in God," said Salim Killabi, a mourner in his 30s, referring to the strict Sunni sect which many Iraqi Shias identify with al-Qaeda. He added: "Al-Qaeda are co-operating with others to kill the Shias."
But there was also joy among some mourners, who said that their relatives and friends who had died in the blasts were lucky, having died on the same day as Imam Hussein.
"This day is good for the dead," said Nassir Jumaa, from Kerbala. "They are martyrs because they died the day they were celebrating Ashura, the day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein."
"They sacrificed their souls for Hussein!" cried the muezzin [caller to prayer\] from the minaret of the Imam Hussein mosque, his amplified words echoing across the city.