Cult followers seek to hasten the return of the Mahdi 70 dead as Iraqi forces defeat doomsday cult Security forces raided a mosque were the cultists were holed up Nasiriyah, IRAQ (AFP) Security forces on Saturday overran a mosque in southern Iraq where Shiite doomsday cultists were holed up, ending two days of clashes in two cities that killed at least 70 people, police said. The fighting came as millions of Shiites across Iraq marked the climax of 10-day Ashura rituals, which commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680. The mosque was the last stronghold of the cultists. Wearing yellow headbands and sporting the Star of David, they attacked police simultaneously early Friday afternoon in the southern port city of Basra and in Nasiriyah, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Baghdad. Fighting raged in both cities through the afternoon, during which, according to officials, police posts and several Shiite processions marking Ashura were attacked with machine-guns and assault rifles. The clashes died down in Basra during the night but continued sporadically in Nasiriyah. Police officials said at least 35 cultists were killed in Basra and 18 in Nasiriyah. A total of 12 police, two Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were also killed, according to the latest police figures. More than 120 cultists were arrested in Nasiriyah, Basra and in a raid Saturday in the town of Musayyib, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad. Followers of the cult, led by Ahmed al-Hassani al- Yamani, seek to hasten the return of Imam Mahdi, an eighth century imam who vanished as a boy and whom Shiites believe will return to bring justice to the world. Yamani has his own website on which he claims to be an ambassador for the Mahdi, who he says is imminently to re-appear. The fighting came as around two million Shiites descended on the holy city of Karbala in central Iraq for Saturday's climax of the Ashura rituals. During Ashura last January, another militant sect dubbing itself the Jund al-Samaa, or "Soldiers of Heaven," clashed with U.S. and Iraqi forces outside Karbala and another holy Shiite city, Najaf. Last year's fighting left 263 sect followers dead, including their leader Dhia Abdul Zahra Kadhim al- Krimawi, also known as Abu Kamar, who believed he was descended from the Prophet Mohammed. 70 dead as Iraqi forces defeat doomsday cult Nasrallah in public for first time since Israel war Yemen tracks killers of Belgian tourists Israel continues Gaza blitz despite UN concern Dutch govt ready for anger over anti-Islam film Comments Leave a Comment Security forces on high alert as Ashura climax nears Attacks mar Shiite festival in Iraq, Pakistan Pakistan attack Shiite devotees in the Iraqi city of Karbala (File) Kerbala, IRAQ, Peshawar, PAKISTAN (AFP) As tens of thousands of Shiites gathered in the Iraqi city of Karbala on Thursday for the festival of Ashura, a suicide attack on a ceremony elsewhere in the country marred the build-up to the event. The suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in the central city of Baquba during an Ashura ceremony, killing eight people and wounding 15, police said. The attacker struck as devotees were leaving the mosque to begin a street procession as part of rituals commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680. In Karbala -- the focus of the festival, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baquba -- the streets were packed with pilgrims from across the Muslim world, two days ahead of the climax of Ashura on Saturday. Tradition holds that Hussein was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid's armies. To express remorse and guilt for not saving Hussein, Shiite volunteers flay themselves with chains or slice their scalps during processions to the two centre points of the pilgrimage -- the imposing shrines to Imam Hussein and his half- brother Imam Abbas. According to the governor of Karbala, Akil al- Khazali, more than 3,400 pilgrims have already arrived from countries as far away as India, Pakistan and Tanzania. At least 15,000 Iranians are also in the city. Khazali told a news conference on Thursday that around two million Shiite devotees, mainly from across Iraq, were expected in Karbala by Friday night. He added that some 20,000 security personnel were on duty in the city for the event, which has been attacked by Sunni insurgents in the past, including by suicide bombers. There are also 500 women officers to frisk female pilgrims, following a spate of suicide bombings by women in Iraq in recent weeks. A vehicle curfew came into force in Baghdad, Karbala and nine other provinces on Thursday evening. In 2004, 170 pilgrims were killed by bomb attacks in Karbala and Baghdad during the festival, and in January 2005, 44 people died when a man armed with an explosives belt and grenades blew himself up next to a crowd of pilgrims near the Hussein mausoleum. Pakistan attack A teenage suicide attacker blew himself up at a packed Shiite mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing eight people and wounding 20, officials said. The explosion ripped through crowds of people marking the Ashura festival. Cities across Pakistan were placed on high alert amid fears that the blast could heighten instability ahead of key elections in mid- February, which have been delayed following the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto. Witnesses said the attacker opened fire with an assault rifle before detonating himself just inside the mosque in the mainly Sunni city near the Afghan border while more than 100 people were worshipping there. A blast in the same area of Peshawar during Ashura last year killed the city's police chief and 13 other people. The country has been on edge since the start on January 10 of the holy month of Moharram, which has in previous years seen a surge in sectarian violence between the minority Shiite and majority Sunni communities. There have now been four deadly bombings in Pakistan this year, including a suicide attack in Lahore one week ago that killed 16 policemen and four civilians. Much of Iraq under curfew for Ashura festival 70 dead as Iraqi forces defeat doomsday cult Nasrallah in public for first time since Israel war Yemen tracks killers of Belgian tourists Israel continues Gaza blitz despite UN concern Dutch govt ready for anger over anti-Islam film Comments Leave a Comme Thousands of police deployed to protect pilgrims Much of Iraq under curfew for Ashura festival Iraqis shiites flail themselves as they perform a procession (File) BAGHDAD (AFP) A curfew will be slapped on Baghdad and 10 Iraqi provinces on Thursday for the three-day Shiite Muslim festival of Ashura, state television reported on Wednesday. All traffic will be banned from Thursday night in nine southern provinces as weel as in Baghdad and the Diyala province in the centre-north of the country where many Shiites live, the channel quoted an interior ministry statement as saying. Up to a million pilgrims are expected to descend on Karbala in time for the climax of the annual rituals on Saturday. Many travel on foot and in past years have been exposed to attacks by Sunni insurgents. Police have said tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and police would be on duty in Karbala and nearby Najaf for Ashura, which marks Shiite Islam's holiest days. Some 12,000 Iraqi soldiers and police have been deployed along with 3,000 members of a police rapid response unit in Karbala, according to city police. Last August a pilgrimage in Karbala became a bloodbath when police and gunmen of the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed at two holy shrines in the city centre. Sadr suspended the activities of his militia two days after the clashes, which killed 52 people and ended the pilgrimage abruptly. Police are also on alert in Najaf, site of the shrine of Imam Ali and headquarters of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, which is one of the main stopping points on the way to Karbala.. Some 4,000 officers are patrolling the 50- kilometre (30-mile) route between Najaf and Karbala. Checkpoints have been set up along all routes to Karbala and the security forces are using special equipment to detect explosives, police said. In the past suicide bombers have mingled among crowds of pilgrims before detonating their explosive vests, causing carnage. Ashura, which means the tenth in Arabic, falls on the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharrem. The climax of Ashura, which commemorates the killing in Karbala of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680, falls on January 19. Tradition holds that Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid's armies. To express remorse and guilt for not saving Hussein, Shiite volunteers flay themselves with chains or slice their scalps during processions to the Karbala shrines.