(15 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Karbala, Iraq – 15 August 2025
1. Wide of Shitte pilgrims gathered at shrines
2. Shiite shrines
3. Pilgrims walking towards shrines
4. Various of pilgrims self-flagellating during ceremony
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saeed Khanafira, visitor from Shadegan in Iran:
"Actually, we are don’t have the words to describe what has happened and is still happening today in this city, the city of Karbala, from hospitality, the warm welcome, the security, and the stances we’ve seen here. I mean one cannot describe it."
6. Wide of visitors inside shrine
7. Visitors performing self-flagellation acts in shrines
8. Various of pilgrims carrying flags and marching in shrines
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Saffah, visitor from Nasiriyah in southern Iraq:
"Thank God. God has blessed us with the Arbaeen visit. And thank God, we have come here on foot from Nasiriyah. It took us nine days. We got here after nine days to find services being provided to visitors. We thank the security forces for their support to the visitors. We don’t feel tired as long as the security forces and Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Units) are standing by the visitors."
10. Various of volunteers providing free meals to visitors
11. Free meals offered to visitors
12. People eating free meals
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Isam Abdul- Zahra, volunteer from Amara in southern Iraq:
"We started providing food and drinks for the visitors of Imam Hussein since the first day of Safar (a month in the Islamic calendar). And we pray that God accept this from us. We’ve provided breakfast and lunch meals in addition to extra meals along with water, juice and fruit."
14. Various of security forces checking visitors
15. Various of people walking by the shrines
STORYLINE:
Shiite Muslims from around the world have made their way to Karbala in Iraq to mourn the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein in a an annual commemoration known as Arbaeen.
The visitors have been making their way to their sect’s holy shrines in Karbala.
The gathering marks the anniversary of the 40th day of mourning following his death in the 7th century.
Arbaeen is Arabic for the number 40 and traditionally observes the end of a mourning period.
Some visitors travelled for days on foot from all over Iraq to mark the end of this mourning period.
"We have come here on foot from Nasiriyah. It took us nine days," said Mahmoud Saffah, a visitor from southern Iraq. "We got here after nine days to find services being provided to visitors."
Volunteers handed the visitors free meals along the way and even offered them a chance to rest, providing them with foam mattresses and blankets.
"We’ve provided lunch and breakfast meals in addition to extra meals along with water, juice and fruit," said Isam Abdul- Zahra, a volunteer.
Hussein was killed at the hands of the Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala, during the tumultuous first century of Islam’s history.
Some pilgrims carried out acts of self-flagellation on Friday as they mourned Hussein’s death.
The Shiite pilgrimage of Arbaeen is regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world.
AP video shot by Salman Amin
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