Visitors happy Iraq event passes off peacefully

Karbala: Hundreds of thousands of Shiites streamed home from Iraq's shrine city of Karbala on Sunday at the end of an annual holy rite that passed without the factional violence that marred it last year.

Several bomb attacks on Shiites heading to the rite killed more than 30 people in recent days, but the ritual itself in Karbala was peaceful, authorities said.

Last year, Shiite militia and police clashed during the the ceremony, leading to major gunbattles in Karbala's streets.

At the conclusion of the Sha'abiniya rite overnight, the visitors crowded the banks of a river that flows into the Euphrates, floating lit candles on the water under a full moon. They then began to pack into buses to leave Karbala, some 80km south of Baghdad, which was under the tight watch this week of some 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers backed by snipers, helicopters and bomb-sniffing dogs.

The throngs of Shiites that make such events each year underscore the clout wielded by Iraq's religious majority five years after the US-led invasion in 2003.

Participation in the events has swelled since the fall of Saddam Hussain, a Sunni Arab who restricted Shiite shows of force and sought to keep control of their leaders. The events have frequently been targeted by Sunni Arab militants.

A suicide bomber killed 19 pilgrims near the town of Iskandariya on Thursday as they made their way to Karbala.

"This year, the ceremony was nice, except for the Iskandariya incident," said Yousuf Mohammad Ali, a 41-year-old from the southern city of Basra, before heading home.

homecoming

iraqis return from egypt

About 240 Iraqis flew home from Cairo yesterday aboard a government-sponsored flight, but some refugee agencies and analysts said their return was premature and politically motivated.

Families crowded outside a Cairo airport terminal hours before the flight was due to take off and an Iraqi consular official handed them small plastic Iraqi flags. The flight was the second airlift sponsored by the Iraqis this week. A similar number of refugees flew home on August 11. "It is political. The government wants to portray the situation as sustainably safe," said Joost Hilterman, an Iraq expert in the International Crisis Group think tank.Several refugees interviewed by Reuters said they were returning home because of financial hardships they faced in Egypt, rather than the improved security situation in Iraq.