“Acting on intelligence information, security authorities arrested 11 al-Qaeda elements, who were planning to attack Shiite visitors coming to holy Karbala on Ashura occasion,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Ashura is an occasion marking the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussein, the prophet Muhammad’s grandson and the third Imam for Shiite Muslims, in the battle of Karbala in the Hegira year 61 (680 in the Gregorian calendar).
Thousands of Shiite Muslims from all over Iraq and neighboring countries head to Imam Hussein’s tomb in Karbala as well as to Shiite shrines in other provinces to celebrate the occasion.
Karbala lies 108 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
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