Baghdad, Iraq—Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through the streets of Baghdad Friday, February 18, to mark Ashura, as a deadly blast at a Shiite mosque in the Iraqi capital reportedly killed 31 and wounded 22.

The large public display came as many other pilgrims descended on Karbala, where Shiites are to commemorate Saturday, February 19, the suffering of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Al-Hussein, whose 7th century martyrdom in a battle near the city, is remembered at Ashura, one of the most important dates in Shiite religious calendar.

Dressed in black for mourning and holding aloft green banners bearing the name Al-Hussein, the crowds filled a broad central Baghdad street, according to Reuters.

As the crowds of pilgrims moved through Baghdad’s streets, some beat themselves with metal chains as is the custom for Ashura.

The ceremony climaxes Saturday, with huge crowds expected to congregate in Karbala and Baghdad.

Hani Fahs, a prominent Lebanese Shiite scholar, said in an IslamOnline.net live dialogue at Ashura last year that Shiites should not go far away to expose their sadness over the martyrdom of Al-Hussein. He further condemned pilgrims beating themselves with chains.

Mosque Attacked

The celebrations came amid tight security measures in Karbala, some 105 kilometers west of Baghdad, where 170 people were killed in suicide bombings on pilgrims at Ashura last year.

Police set checkpoints on all roads leading to Karbala. Vehicles were banned from getting into, and pilgrims came under massive check operations before entering the city.

Ali Al-Mosawi, representative of Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in Kadhimiya, called on all Iraqis to cooperate with police forces to help them arrest suspected militants who could launch bombing attacks this year.

But despite the tight security measures, at least 31 people were killed and 22 wounded in an attack at a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad Friday, according to Al-Jazeera, citing police sources.

Reuters initially put the number of killed at 13 and quoted survivors as saying a man wearing a suicide belt blew himself up in the mosque in the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad as worshippers marked Ashura.

According to Reuters, Police initially thought it was an attack by rocket-propelled grenades, but later said it had been a suicide bomb. The US military was not immediately reachable for comment.

The dead and wounded were taken to Yarmouk hospital, one of Baghdad’s busiest, where family and friends filled the corridors.

Iraq shut its borders to pilgrims for five days from Thursday, February 17, to bolster security during the festival and to prevent pilgrims flooding into the country from abroad.

Border police said they had detained 255 pilgrims from Iran and Afghanistan in the past two days in eastern Iraq.

Political Overtures

Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main party in a Shiite alliance that won the Jan. 30 election, addressed a crowd of pilgrims Friday, lending a political element to the religious ritual.

“I call on all Iraqis to unite and I assure everyone the Iraq we want is a unified and secure Iraq where every citizen, without exception, enjoys justice and equality,” Hakim told the crowd, which chanted “Hussein, Hussein” and “God is Greatest”.

“We want an Iraq where everyone takes part in building it, and we want a system which gives all people their rights. We say it now and we will always say it, that we are open to all Iraqis, because they are partners in this nation.

“It’s not the right of one group to monopolize Iraq to the detriment of others,” he said in comments that are one of the strongest declarations yet of Shiite intentions to include Sunnis.

Most Sunnis did not vote in the election, which was won by Shiite candidates.

There was a small presence of Iraqi police near those marching Friday, as well as many members of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia loyal to SCIRI.

Friday’s march also included a funeral procession for three members of the Badr Organization that SCIRI says were killed while in Iraqi police detention earlier this month.