Pilgrims Flying Direct From Iraq for Hajj
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Iraq's national air carrier began flying direct routes to Saudi Arabia on Monday for the Hajj, the first time it has done so since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Transportation Ministry said.
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JEDDAH, 23 December 2004 - A final warning has been issued to Umrah overstayers to leave the country before the advent of Haj next month.
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Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims thronged the streets of Karbala on Saturday for a religious festival, and Iraqi army and police deployed across the holy city to ward off any suicide bombers.
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MINA, Saudi Arabia  - Saudi police went on high alert on Friday as millions of Muslims rushed to complete one of the last rituals of the annual haj pilgrimage, testing to the limits the new crowd control arrangements at an accident spot on the haj itinerary.
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KERBALA, Iraq  - More than a million Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala on Wednesday, defying insurgents who killed around 160 people in two days of attacks blamed by the government on Sunni militants.
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Supporters of the anti-American cleric say reports of his flight to Iran are false. But clerics in Najaf tell TIME there are signs he has left the city
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ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia  - Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims reached the plain of Arafat east of Mecca on Monday, the vanguard of a throng expected to peak at more than 2 million people by Tuesday, the climax of the haj pilgrimage.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - Shi'ite fighters left the holiest  shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf Friday and began turning in  their weapons, after tens of thousands of pilgrims celebrated a  peace agreement that ended a bloody rebellion.
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Chanting, "Oh Allah I'm here," hundreds of thousands of pilgrims draped in white garments on Tuesday began to take part in rituals symbolizing the life of their 7th century prophet and streaming into the mammoth tent city of Mina.
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HILLA, Iraq  - Insurgents killed 149 Shi'ite pilgrims heading for the holy Iraqi city of Kerbala on Tuesday, including 115 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in one of the deadliest attacks of the 4-year war.
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Thousands of Iraqi Christians picked their way through checkpoints and along dusty streets lined with concrete blast walls, packing churches in Baghdad on Tuesday for Christmas Mass.
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Threats from insurgents delayed a trip  by Iraqi political and religious leaders to the holy city of  Najaf on Tuesday to try and persuade a radical Shi'ite cleric  to end a rebellion that has killed hundreds.
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A ban on two-wheelers and hand carts is imposed in Baghdad ahead of an important Shia pilgrimage.
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Pilgrims carry out one of the Hajj's final rituals, as a top Saudi cleric warns them to shun militant forms of Islam.
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KERBALA, Iraq  - Iraqi forces imposed tight security on the city of Kerbala on Saturday where 2.5 million pilgrims marked the climax of a major Shi'ite rite, a day after gunmen attacked worshippers and police in other southern cities.
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Millions of Shiites are making a pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq, this weekend, despite the threat of snipers and suicide bombers.
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The Vatican introduced a low-cost airline that will fly Catholic pilgrims from Italy to religious destinations around the world.