The beefed up presence is aimed at stopping attacks by Sunni insurgents who have previously targeted the two cities during Ashura, with around a million pilgrims expected in Karbala before the climax of the annual rituals on Sunday.

"We will deploy 20,000 soldiers and policemen in Karbala," the chief of military operations in the city, General Usman al-Ghanemi, said.

"There will be four security perimeters in the city, and four others in the old town close to the two shrines (of Imams Hussein and his half-brother Abbas)," he added.

Karbala is the principal site of the 10-day-long commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein at the hands of the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

In nearby Najaf, where the shrine of Hussein's father Imam Ali is located, a further 26,000 security force members will be deployed.

To counter women suicide attackers who have struck Karbala before, Ghanemi said security forces had deployed 600 female security personnel on three roads into the city, along with bomb-sniffing dogs and explosives-detecting devices.

During Ashura in March 2004, near-simultaneous bombings at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad and in Karbala killed more than 170 people.

"The security plan also includes helicopters flying overhead and in the desert surrounding Karala to prevent mortars hitting pilgrims," Ghanemi said, adding that police will comb the city for explosives throughout the festival.

Security chiefs have also vowed to prevent any political exploitation of the festival as Iraq prepares to go to the polls for parliamentary elections on March 7.

Karbala police chief General Ali Jassim Mohammed said it was crucial that "this religious event be kept separate from politics and that we prevent it from being used in the electoral campaign."

"We will not allow photos of candidates, or political or religious leaders during the pilgrimage, or the chanting of sectarian slogans during the procession, and we have obtained guarantees on this subject from organisers," he said.

"Cameras have also been set up across the city and close to the shrines to monitor the movements of crowds of pilgrims."

Karbala provincial governor Amal Adin al-Her estimates that around one million worshippers will visit the city on Saturday and Sunday, including 60,000 pilgrims from the Gulf countries, Iran and Pakistan.

In Najaf, the head of the provincial council's security committee, Luay al-Yassiri, said the city would be closed to vehicule traffic from Thursday.

Ashura, which means tenth in Arabic, falls on the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram. The festival's climax this year falls on December 27.

Tradition holds that Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, 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.

Shiites make up around 15 percent of Muslims worldwide. They form the majority populations in Iraq, Iran and Bahrain and form significant communities in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

earlier related report
10,000 S. Leoneans seek work in Iraq: minister
Freetown (AFP) Dec 23, 2009 - With joblessness high in Sierra Leone, war-torn Iraq has drawn the attention of thousands of unemployed youths in the west African state, Deputy Labour Minister Moijueh Kaikai said Wednesday.

"About 10,000 Sierra Leonean youths have signed up for security jobs in Iraq" under a contract agreement brokered by the British security firm Sabre International, he said.

The minister added that "the latest group of 420 youths, including 10 women, left overnight for Iraq, while an overall total of 10,000 are on the roll call for the programme."

He said that another batch will be leaving within the next two weeks but did not indicate the number.

"A Sierra Leone ministry of labour official is presently in Iraq in Camp Smith to oversee the programme," Kaikai said, adding "the security situation where they will be working is relatively safe and they will not be working in any combat area.

"According to the agreement, Sierra Leone diplomats in the region will be visiting the workers at intervals to monitor the conditions."

"The government has benefitted from the scheme as the programme has addressed the unemployment situation in Sierra Leone. The workers' salaries will be about 250 US dollars (175 euros) a month, 50 dollars will be paid to them in Iraq and the rest deposited in their foreign accounts in Freetown," the minister explained.

"Their salaries will not be taxed and they will be given free accommodation, free medical facility, free transportation and free insurance," he added.

The agreement was welcomed by the Youth for Middle East Overseas Employment group, which has constantly pressured the government to allow youths to seek work in Iraq.

Secretary-General Akim Bangura said, "We are delighted over the development."

"Finally, we are breathing a sigh of relief over the positive outcome. We have fought a successful battle and I have been arrested a couple of times for leading campaigns for jobless youths to find jobs in Iraq. I am happy it has all ended this way," he concluded.

The west African country is struggling to recover from a bloody, decade-long civil war which ended in 2001.

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