Iraq Watch: September 9, 2006

Shiites Converge on Holy City

An estimated three to four million Shiites from across the Muslim world gathered in the holy city of Karbala Saturday to participate in the culmination of a religious festival celebrating the birthday of Shia Islam's twelfth imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi (Mohammed ibn Hasan ibn Ali), often referred to as the "hidden imam."

The event ended largely without incident, although sectarian violence was seen in the days leading up to the festival.

Three festival-goers were killed yesterday in a mortar attack near Musayyib, while some 14 Pakistani and Indian pilgrims were abducted and murdered last week en route to the holy city situated 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Al-Mahdi, born in 868 in Samarra, Iraq, is considered by the majority Shiites as the twelfth and final imam. He is called the hidden imam because Shiite's believe al-Mahdi disappeared and went into a state of occultation, or ghaybat, as an adolescent.

According to Shiite lure, al-Mahdi will return on the day of judgment as the savior of mankind.

In violence elsewhere in Iraq Saturday, roadside bombs in the northern city of Kirkuk killed four people and wounded 16 others.

Also, authorities discovered at least seven bodies across Iraq. Six of the corpses were found in Mahmoudiya, a religiously mixed town south of Baghdad.