Inside World: World November 04, 2014 Security tight as Shiites mark holy day in Iraq

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims flocked Tuesday to an Iraqi holy city for the peak of a 10-day religious ritual amid tight security over fears of sectarian attacks.

Ashoura rituals were so far peaceful in the city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, as more than 30,000 Iraqi troops were deployed to protect the worshippers. This is the first time Ashoura has been observed since Sunni extremists — who view Shiites as apostates deserving of death — seized much of northern and western Iraq.

Ashoura marks the anniversary of the death in the seventh century of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, in a battle outside Karbala, which sealed Islam's historic Sunni-Shiite split. Shiite festivals in Iraq have often been attacked by Sunni extremists.

In Lebanon, where sectarian tensions are high over the civil war in Syria, tens of thousands of supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah turned out in the group's stronghold in southern Beirut amid unprecedented security measures.

The annual mournful Shiite march of men beating and whipping themselves is being carried out with a sense of triumph this year in the country, home to a large Shiite minority. The group's participation in the Syrian war alongside President Bashar Assad's forces against mainly Sunni rebels trying to topple him is highly divisive in Lebanon. Critics say the decision has dragged Lebanon into the fray, triggering suicide and other attacks against Shiite strongholds in the country.

But many supporters of the group backed Hezbollah's participation in the war, adopting its narrative charging that the intervention in Syria was necessary to keep Sunni extremists such as the Islamic State group from invading Lebanon and commiting massacres as it has done in Syria and Iraq.

Now many say they feel vindicated, with Lebanon's army and Hezbollah fighters battling Sunni militants in the country's north. "What is happening around us increases our conviction and faith that our choices were right," Nasrallah told tens of thousands of supporters Tuesday.

In Karbala, men, mostly wearing robes, pounded their chests, slashed their heads and beat their bloodied foreheads with the flat sides of swords and knives. Mourners waved Iraqi and Shiite religious flags as they ran toward the Imam Hussein holy shrine.

The crowds chanted: "Hussein... Hussein," as army helicopters hovered over the area to provide protection for the pilgrims.

Yacoub reported from Baghdad.