Karbala, 2008 Jan 18, Al-Manar
 
Visitors in their hundreds of thousands crowded the streets of the holy city of Karbala Friday, as the annual Ashura commemoration began building towards a peak.
 
The shrine city south of Baghdad was heavily guarded as devotees from across the Muslim world flooded through a long series of security checkpoints to reach the arena of the mourning.
 
The rituals commemorating the martyring of Imam Hussain (peace be upon him) by Umayyad ruler of Yazid's army in 680 C.E. will reach their climax in the holy city of Karbala on Saturday.
 
Around two million people are expected to be in the holy city of Karbala, 110 km south of Baghdad, by Saturday, guarded by a 20,000-strong security force.
 
The ceremonies have been targeted in the past and on Thursday a bomber blew himself up during an Ashura procession outside a mosque in Baquba, 60 km north of Baghdad, martyring eight people.
 
Swarming crowds in Karbala on Friday joined somber processions.
 
Tents and small wooden rooms covered in black fabric and adorned with lights have sprung up across the city for visitors in need of food or seeking a rest from the intense bustle of the streets.
 
According to the governor of Karbala, Akil al-Khazali, some 20,000 security personnel are on duty in the city for the event, including 500 women officers to frisk female visitors, following a spate of bombings by women in occupied Iraq in recent weeks.
 
There is also a police and army presence of about 20,000 in the holy city Najaf, another shrine city and a stopping point for  visitors about 50 km from Karbala, police said.
 
A vehicle curfew came into force in Baghdad, Karbala and nine other provinces on Thursday evening.
 
In 2004, 170 pilgrims were martyred by terrorist bomb attacks in Karbala and Baghdad during the ceremony.
 
In January the following year, 44 people were martyred when a man armed with an explosives belt and grenades blew himself up next to a crowd of visitors near the Imam Hussain (a.s.) mausoleum.