August 09, 2007
Wary Pilgrims Flock To Baghdad
Security was tight this morning on the road to a Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, as hundreds of thousands of Muslims neared the destination of an annual pilgrimage. Iraqi police and guarded checkpoints lined the route.
For the last two years, violence has erupted during the journey. Nearly 1,000 people were killed in 2005 when rumors of a suicide bomber prompted a stampede on a bridge over the Tigris River in a Sunni-dominated neighborhood. In 2006, gunmen killed 20 and wounded hundreds on their way to the shrine.
But one man told Reuters that conditions feel safer: "It is not like last year. This year it is secure." A three-day curfew has been imposed on vehicle traffic in Iraq's capital, and Reuters reports that shops are shuttered and the streets deserted.
The pilgrimage leads to the shrine of a martyr imprisoned and poisoned in Baghdad more than 1,000 years ago.
Posted at 8:00 AM
Posted to:
Iraq, Middle East
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