Roundup: Millions of Shiite Muslims end largest pilgrimage in Iraq's holy Karbala

Millions of Shiite Muslims ended Thursday their annual major ritual of Arbaeen at the Shiite holy city of Karbala, making their largest gathering in the city since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, despite possible attacks by the Islamic State (IS) militants group.

The Arbaeen is the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammad's grandson and the third holy figure for the Shiite Muslim sect, who was killed in the battle of Karbala in 680 A.D..

Over 20 million Shiite pilgrims have converged on Karbala, some 110 km southwest of Baghdad, to mark the Arbaeen event at Karbala's golden-domed mausoleums of Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas.

Many of Iraqi pilgrims were traveling on foot from several Iraqi cities throughout the past ten days, according to Haider al-Salami, head of media office of the religious authority in Karbala.

More than five million foreign pilgrims from many world countries entered Iraq to participate in the religious event. Most of the foreigners were Iranian who crossed the long border with Iraq, Salami said.

On Monday, Iraq's Interior Ministry blamed Iran for chaos and stampede on Zurbatiyah border crossing point as thousands of Iranian pilgrims stormed the fences and wounded border guards to illegally enter the country for a major Shiite ritual.

Later on, Jaafar Abdul Jabbar, mayor of Badra area, where Zurbatiyah border point located, told Iraqi media that some three million pilgrims entered during the past days until the closure of the border point on Tuesday afternoon.

"About one million out of those three millions entered Iraq without visas due to the chaos and stampede," Jabbar said.

The Iraqi official television and many other private channels aired live footage showing that the streets of Karbala were clearly overwhelmed with black-clad pilgrims filling the wide avenues and narrow back-streets.

Processions of elderly, young men and children marched through thousands of other pilgrims, waving green, black and red flags, at the wide avenue in front of Imam Hussein shrine.

Some pilgrims beat their chests and heads in honor of Imam Hussein who was killed in the seventh century. Mourners in some processions performed self-flagellation with chains, or slashed their heads with swords letting blood streaming down their faces and bodies, expressing their remorse for missing the chance of not being with Imam Hussein to defend him when he was killed.

"This visit is the biggest since the change of Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, because it started early with very high density every day of the past ten days. Every day was like the climax day," said Major General Qais al-Muhammedi, Commander of the security forces in Furat Awsat region which includes the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in central Iraq.

Muhammedi said that despite the large number of pilgrims, the security plan was successful.

Provincial security sources said around 30,000 members of the security forces were deployed in and around Karbala, in addition to 5,000 from the paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, who secured the highway leading to Karbala and the edges of the city.

Karbala, a city with more than 650,000 people, located between Euphrates River and desert of the Sunni heartland of province of Anbar, where the Iraqi security forces and allied Hashd Shaabi militias are fighting the IS extremist group which seized large parts of Sunni province. Endit