HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: Millions of Husseini mourners on Thursday commemorated Arabeen Al-Husseini in Iraq with main ceremony to mark the sorrowful occasion was held in the holy city of Karbala which houses holy shrines of Al-Imam Al-Hussein (A) and his brother Al-Abbas (A) amid beefed-up security measures.

Thousands of coffin-wearing mourners slashed open their heads with long sharp swords in front of the two holy mausoleums shedding their blood to pay rich homage to the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (S) who rendered unparalleled sacrifices along with his 72 near and dear ones in the burning plain of Karbala some 1,400 years ago for defense of Islam and survival of humanity achieving the title of “Zibh-e-Azeem”.

Black-veiled wailing women beat their chests and foreheads as boys and men hit chains, blades and swords on their backs and heads to signify their deep grief over the sufferings of Ahlul Bayt (A) while circling the Husseini and Abbasi shrines.

“If they chopped off our legs and arms, we would come crawling to you Hussein,” they screamed in unison.

In a show of humbleness, many crawled through the streets of this holy city while others fell on their hands and knees as they approached the two holy shrines.

Iraqi state television carried the Arbaeen procession live from Karbala where according to some officials more than three million mourning devotees massed to commemorate the occasion.

In the holy city of Kazemiyah, home to the holy shrines of Al-Imam Mousa Al-Kazem (A) and Al-Imam Taqi Al-Jawwad (A), hundreds of thousands gathered to hold Arbaeen mourning programs.

The holy compound was crammed with the mourners who performing mourning rituals – shedding tears, reciting dirges, performing head and chest beating, and tatbeer (hitting sword on head to shed blood) – extended their condolence to Imamain Jawwadain (A) on the sufferings of their grandfather Al-Imam Al-Hussein (A) and his sister Sayyedah Zaynab (A) who returned to the holy city of Karbala on this day after imprisonment in Syria at the hands of Yazid (L) following the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (A).

Similar ceremonies were also held in all other parts of the country where schools, offices, banks, businesses and markets were shut marking the sad occasion of Arbaeen.

Meanwhile, two car bombs on Thursday martyred at least one dozen Iraqis near shrines.

In the latest attack on Thursday, seven people were martyred by a car bomb in the centre of the northern city of Samra. It exploded as a US-Iraqi patrol drove past the golden-domed shrine of Al-Imam Ali Naqi Al-Hadi (A) and Al-Imam Hassan Al-Askari (A).

Earlier, a suicide bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi army checkpoint in a busy residential neighborhood of Tuz Khurmatu, a town on the road between Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, police said. Among the three people he martyred was a five-year-old child.

That attack took place as hundreds of Turkmen walked to the shrine of Ahmed bin Mousa Al-Kazem for Arbaeen commemoration.