Bombings kills dozens of Shia pilgrims in Iraq Elsewhere, in Kirkuk, a car bomb killed a Shia man, who was distributing food, and wounded another eight people. The series of attacks reflect the continuing tension in Iraq between Sunni and Shia. By choosing the festival of Ashura, the Sunni have chosen a date of particular significance to Shia. It marks the killing of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed in 680AD by soldiers of the caliph Yazid. His death in the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, has come to symbolise the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shia. Now millions of Shia from around the world gather to mark the festival. Modern-day Shia mourners flood Hussein's shrine, demonstrating their ritual guilt and remorse for not defending him by beating their heads and chests and, in some cases, making incisions on their scalps with swords in rituals of self-flagellation. With around two million pilgrims expected security measures were stepped up with 35,000 soldiers and policemen deployed to Karbala, the city south of Baghdad, where the battle which culminated in Hussein's death took place.