BAGHDAD - Tens of thousands of Iraqis streamed home on Sunday from Ashura ceremonies in Karbala that were hailed by Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki as a sign of stability after they passed relatively peacefully.| Doesn't fit the narrative so you'll won't read this at the NYT. |
Fleets of buses began ferrying pilgrims, many of whom had walked to Karbala as part of their pilgrimage, to their hometowns soon after ceremonies ended on Saturday and the exodus from the shrine city was continuing on Sunday.
Officials said the ceremonies in Karbala itself were staged without incident-in contrast to previous years when they were violently disrupted by Sunni insurgents.
“The Ashura ceremony this year is clear evidence that security and stability have became an obvious reality,” Maliki said in a statement. “People’s help, high awareness and their feeling of responsibility along with the awareness of security forces aborted the plans of some perverted groups ... who tried to incite chaos in some provinces,” he added.
He was referring to members of a Shia messianic cult which staged an uprising in the southern cities of Basra and Nasiriyah on Friday, attacking police posts and Ashura ceremonies in the apparent belief that their actions would speed up the return of Imam Mahdi.