Erbil ready to receive up to 30k daily Shiite visitors, says official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – As Shiites around the world are preparing to mark Arbaeen this year in Iraq’s southern Karbala, the Kurdistan Region's Erbil is ready to receive up to 30,000 Shiite visitors on daily basis, according to an official. 

Thousands of Shiite Muslim visitors, mainly Iranian nationals, annually enter Iraq through Kurdistan Region’s Erbil border crossing to visit the shrine cities in Iraq’s south.

Haji Omaran border crossing is prepared to receive up to 30,000 Shiite visitors on a daily basis that will be transported in buses to Erbil, where they will later travel to Baghdad, Masoud Bateli, the head of the entry point, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

Nearly 2,000 buses have been prepared to transport the visitors from the border crossing to Erbil, the official said.

Erbil expects half a million visitors to enter the Kurdish region through its main border crossing with Iran, the official said.

The transportation process will begin on Friday and continue until early September, Bateli added.

Thousands of Shiite visitors across the world travel to Karbala, the resting place and shrine of Imam Al-Hussain, on foot from Najaf Province. They walk around 80 km from Najaf to Karbala, which takes around 24 hours in the scorching summer heat.

The occasion is to observe Arabaeen, or the 40 days after Ashura, the commemoration of the martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussain, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.

Outnumbered by the forces of Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, Hussein and his small group were killed following a brief fight.