Saudi Arabia gears up to welcome Haj pilgrims

Riyadh: More than two million Muslims begin the Haj in Saudi Arabia this week, amid fears of militant attacks.

A duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime, the five-day ritual begins on Friday.

Pilgrims converge on the Grand Mosque in Makkah and follow a route around the rocky mountains of the ancient city in line with a tradition established by the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

Overcrowding is a perennial worry but this time, regional tension between Shiites and Sunnis has heightened security concerns while authorities remain on the look-out for Al Qaida-linked militant violence - a fear in recent years.

"We have been prepared to deal with the worst, may God forbid it, including things that can be deadlier than sectarian violence ... stampedes or building collapses," said a senior police officer in Makkah, declining to say if measures were in place to monitor specific religious sects during the pilgrimage.

The Haj takes place in the shadow of violence between Sunnis and Shiites that has taken Iraq to the brink of civil war this year. Sunni-Shiite tension is also high in Lebanon, where Shiites are leading efforts to bring down a Sunni-led cabinet.

Iranian and other pilgrims have used the Haj for political protests in the past. Iran is at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear programme and its backing of Shiite groups in Arab countries, raising the potential for trouble at the Haj.

Combating militants

"There is enough violence and bloodshed on the news about Muslims. Shame on those who provoke or get involved in more violence against fellow Muslims and spoil the Haj for themselves and others," said Iranian teacher Ahmad Nasifi, in Makkah for Haj.

The Interior Ministry is expected to deploy more than 50,000 men in the Makkah area to combat potential militants, demonstrators and disorderly behaviour that could lead to overcrowding.

In 1979, radicals managed to seize the Grand Mosque in Makkah in a two-week stand-off that the monarchy has been determined never to see happen again.

Saudi Arabia said earlier this month it had detained 136 foreign and Saudi militants, some posing as pilgrims, who were planning a series of suicide bombings and assassinations around the desert country of 24 million people.

Last January, 362 pilgrims died in overcrowding at the Jamarat Bridge on the last day.

That followed the death of 76 people when a hotel collapsed in Makkah before the rites began.

The bridge at Mena has been revamped with a more elaborate bridge involving a four-level system of entrances and exits to three ways where pilgrims symbolically stone Satan.