Two Katyusha rockets hit Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Iraq's state news agency reported Sunday citing security forces.

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One rocket was destroyed in the air by the C-RAM defense system and the other landed near the zone's festivals arena damaging two cars, the report added.

Security forces started an investigation to detect the launch site, the agency reported.

A US military official told Reuters that the C-RAM system brought down one of the rounds and none of them landed on the US Embassy. The official said there were no American casualties.

The Green Zone hosts foreign embassies, including the United States Embassy, and government buildings and is regularly the target of rockets fired by groups that US and Iraqi officials say are backed by Iran.

US officials have said Iranian-backed militia could increase attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria in coming weeks, in part to mark the anniversary of the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed a US drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 2, 2020.

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Iranian and Gulf Arab officials met in Baghdad on Saturday on the sidelines of a regional summit that Iraq hoped would encourage its neighbors to talk to each other instead of settling scores on its territory.

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The meetings come months after regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed direct talks in Iraq which have achieved no breakthrough but have helped offset escalating tension in the Middle East.

Iraq's security has improved in recent years but it is still plagued by big power rivalries, rampant corruption among its own politicians and heavily armed militia groups.

Competition for influence in the Middle East between Iran on one side and the United States, Israel and Gulf Arab states on the other has made Iraq the scene of attacks against US forces and assassinations of Iranian and Iraqi paramilitary leaders.

The strained relationships within the region have also led to disruptions to global oil supplies with attacks on Saudi Arabian oil installations – blamed on but denied by Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met his counterparts from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, officials from the two Gulf Arab states said, but provided no further details.

There was no indication of any direct meetings between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but Iraq said talks between the two countries, which began in April, were continuing.

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the Baghdad meeting, hailing it as a major boost for Iraq and its leadership. The country had been largely shunned by Arab leaders for the past few decades because of security concerns amid back-to-back wars and internal unrest, its airport frequently attacked with rockets by insurgents.

On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordan's King Abdullah and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose country's ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.

Macron was due to stay an extra day, meet Iraqi leaders and visit French special forces fighting Islamic State insurgents.

Organizers of the Baghdad summit said they did not expect any diplomatic breakthroughs. "Getting these countries to sit around the table – that will be achievement enough," said one Iraqi government official.

Iranian officials have said they are focused more on the outcome of talks in Vienna with Western powers over Iran's nuclear program and international sanctions.

"The meeting in Iraq ... is only focused on Iraq and how the regional countries can cooperate to help Iraq," an Iranian official told Reuters ahead of the Baghdad summit.

Ahead of the summit, UAE Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum met Qatar's al-Thani and described him as a "brother and friend" in a sign of warming ties between the Gulf rivals.

Iraqi special forces deployed in Baghdad, particularly around the Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, where the summit was held. Participants were expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Lebanon, which has been without a functional government for the past year, and Syria, which has been suspended from the Arab League since 2011, were not represented at the meeting.

Macron described Saturday's meeting as "historic," showcasing Iraq's return to stability following the ruinous war against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in 2017.

Sunday's meeting was a chance for Iraqi leaders to underscore their recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the region's crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

"Iraq, which for years has been a headline for war and conflicts, is hosting leaders and representatives of the region today to affirm their support for Iraqi sovereignty and prosperity," said President Barham Salih.

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On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021, some 174,500 Holocaust survivors are living in Israel, according to data from the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority in the Social Equality Ministry released Tuesday.

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Since Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2020, which fell after the COVID pandemic reached Israel and was most fatal to older Israelis, 14,264 survivors have died, an average of 41 per day.

At the beginning of 2020, the government counted some 192,000 survivors living in Israel, a number that for the first time included Jews from North Africa and the Middle East who were victims of persecution linked to the Nazis.

According to the ministry data, 83% of the survivors are over 80, with an average age of 84.5. Another 18%, some 31,000, are over 90, and 900 have reached 100. Some 60% of the survivors recognized by the authority are women.

Slightly over two-thirds (64%) were born in Europe, with natives of the former USSR comprising 36%. Another 12% (25,00) were born in Romania; and 5.5% (9,600) were born in Poland. Nearly 10,000 others were born in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Germany.

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Thirty-six percent of the survivors were born in Asia and north Africa, including 32,000 Jews from Morocco and Algeria who were targeted by antisemitic attacks and various restrictions under the Vichy regime. Another 11% were born in Baghdad and experienced the riots that spread through Iraq in mid-1941, and 7% were born in Tunisia and Libya, both of which enacted race laws and sent Jews to forced labor camps.

Haifa is home to the largest population of survivors: 12,100, followed by Jerusalem (10,800), Tel Aviv (9,500), Ashdod (8,700), Netanya (8,500), Beersheba (7,600), Petah Tikva (7,000), and Rishon Lezion (6,900).

According to the numbers, there were 14.8 million Jews in the world in 2019, 1.8 million fewer than in 1939 on the eve of World War II, and 3.3 million more than there were in 1948.

Israel remains the country with the largest number of Jews in the world (6.8 million), followed by the United States (5.7 million), France (448,000), and Canada (393,000).

Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day celebrations begin on the evening of Wednesday, April 7, 80 years after the start of the Holocaust.

State events begin with a ceremony at Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem at 8 p.m. Both President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will participate.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Dhafer Eliyahu's death hit Iraq hard, not only because the doctor treated the neediest for free, but because with his passing, only four Jews now remain in the Middle Eastern country.

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At the Habibiya Jewish cemetery in Baghdad, wedged between the Martyr Monument erected by ex-dictator Saddam Hussein and the restive Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, an aged Muslim man still tends to the graves, but visitors are rare.

To hear Jewish prayer out in the open is rare now in Baghdad, where there is only one synagogue that only opens occasionally and no rabbis.

Jewish roots in Iraq, however, go back some 2,600 years.

According to biblical tradition, they arrived in 586 BCE as prisoners of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II after he destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

In Iraq, they wrote the Babylonian Talmud on the very land where the patriarch Abraham was born and where the Garden of Eden is considered by some to have been located, in the heart of the Mesopotamian marshlands.

More than 2,500 years later, in Ottoman-ruled Baghdad, Jews were the second largest community in the city, making up 40% of its inhabitants.

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Some were very prominent members of society like Sassoon Eskell, Iraq's first-ever finance minister in 1920, who made a big impression on British adventurer and writer Gertrude Bell.

Today, "one prays at home," said a Baghdad resident knowledgeable of the city's Jewish community, who also chose to remain anonymous.

When people with a Jewish name deal with the administration, "they will not be well received," he added.

According to Edwin Shuker, a Jew born in Iraq in 1955 and exiled in Britain since he was 16, "There are only four Jews with Iraqi nationality who are descendants of Jewish parents" left in the country, not including the autonomous Kurdish region.

A turning point for Jewish history in Iraq came with the first pogroms in the mid-20th century. In June 1941, the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad left more than 100 Jews dead, properties looted, and homes destroyed.

In 1948, Israel was created amid a war with an Arab military coalition that included Iraq. Almost all of Iraq's 150,000 Jews went into exile in the ensuing years.

Their identity cards were taken away and replaced by documents that made them targets wherever they showed them. Still today, Shuker said, Iraqi law forbids the restoration of their citizenship.

By 1951, 96% of the community had left.

Almost all the remaining Jews followed suit after the public hangings of "Israeli spies" in 1969 by the Baath party, which had just come to power off the back of a coup. "Promotion of Zionism" was punishable by death, and that legislation has remained unchanged.

Israel, on the other hand, is now home to 219,000 Jews of Iraqi origin.

They left behind homes and synagogues, which, up until 2003, "were in perfect condition and each owner identifiable" in Iraq, Shuker said.

"All it takes is a vote in parliament" to return everything to the families, he said.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The withdrawal followed calls from the government and senior militia leaders. It ended a two-day crisis marked by the breach of the largest and one of the most heavily fortified US diplomatic missions in the world.

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The attack and its volatile aftermath prompted the Pentagon to send hundreds of additional troops to the Middle East and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to delay a European and Central Asian trip.

In an orchestrated assault, hundreds and perhaps thousands of militiamen and their supporters broke into the embassy compound, destroying a reception area, smashing windows and spraying graffiti on walls to protest US airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia over the weekend that killed at least 30 fighters, according to some reports.

The US blamed the militia for a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in the northern city of Kirkuk last week that killed a US defense contractor and wounded two others.

The protesters set up a tent camp overnight and on Wednesday set fire to the reception area and hurled stones at US Marines guarding the compound, who responded with tear gas. There were no injuries on either side and no American staff was evacuated from the compound.

The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of state-allied Shiite militias – many backed by Iran – called on its supporters to withdraw in response to an appeal by the Iraqi government, saying "your message has been received."

By late afternoon the tents had been taken down and the protesters relocated to the opposite side of the Tigris River, outside the so-called Green Zone housing government offices and foreign embassies. US Apache helicopters circled overhead.

"After achieving the intended aim, we pulled out from this place triumphantly," said Fadhil al-Gezzi, a militia supporter. "We rubbed America's nose in the dirt." US President Donald Trump has vowed to exact a "big price" for an attack he blamed squarely on Iran.

Kata'ib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia targeted by the US airstrikes, initially refused to leave but later bowed to demands to disperse. The militia is separate from the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon, though both are backed by Iran.

"We don't care about these planes that are flying over the heads of the picketers. Neither do we care about the news that America will bring Marines," said Mohammed Mohy, a spokesman for Kata'ib Hezbollah. "On the contrary, this shows a psychological defeat and a big mental breakdown that the American administration is suffering from," he said, before withdrawing from the area.

The violence came as Iran and its allies across the region have faced unprecedented mass protests in recent months and heavy US sanctions have cratered Iran's economy.

Iraq has been gripped by anti-government protests since October fueled by anger at widespread corruption and economic mismanagement, as well as Iran's heavy influence over the country's affairs. Those protesters were not involved in the embassy attack.

The Pentagon sent an infantry battalion of about 750 soldiers to the Middle East. A US official familiar with the decision said they would go to Kuwait. Pompeo postponed a trip that was scheduled to start in Ukraine late Thursday so that he can monitor developments in Iraq and "ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East," said State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.

Iran denied involvement in the attack on the embassy. Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted by media as saying that "if the Islamic republic makes a decision to confront any country, it will do it directly."

Iran later summoned the Swiss charge d'affaires, who represents American interests in Tehran, to protest what it said was warmongering by US officials.

Public consular operations at the embassy were suspended and future appointments canceled, it said in a statement.

Tensions have steadily risen since Trump withdrew the US from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and embarked on a campaign of maximum pressure through economic sanctions. Iran has responded by abandoning some of its commitments under the deal and ratcheting up its belligerent behavior in the region.

US officials, as well as other countries, have blamed Iran for the sabotage of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and a drone attack on Saudi oil facilities in September that caused a spike in world oil prices. But the Trump administration has not responded with direct military action, perhaps fearing a wider conflict.

The US has sent more than 14,000 additional troops to the Gulf region since May in response to concerns about Iranian aggression. At the time of the attack, the US had about 5,200 troops in Iraq, mainly to train Iraqi forces and help them combat Islamic State extremists.

The US and Iran have vied for influence over Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Iran has close ties to Iraq's Shiite majority and major political factions, and its influence has steadily grown since then.

Iran helped to mobilize tens of thousands of mostly Shiite militiamen to battle the Islamic State group when it stormed across northern and western Iraq in 2014 as the armed forces collapsed. The US and Iran both provided vital aid to Iraqi forces, who eventually declared victory over the extremists in December 2017.

The political influence of the Popular Mobilization Forces has risen in recent years, and their allies dominate the parliament and the government. That has made them the target of the anti-government protesters, who have attacked Iranian diplomatic missions and the local headquarters of parties affiliated with the militias across southern Iraq.

They have also set up a sprawling protest camp in central Baghdad, and for weeks have been trying to enter the Green Zone. Iraqi security forces have beaten them back with tear gas and live ammunition, killing hundreds.

The militiamen and their supporters, however, were able to quickly enter the Green Zone and mass in front of the embassy, with little if any resistance from authorities.

Iraq's government vehemently condemned the airstrikes on the militia, saying it violated national sovereignty. But Iran and its allies might have also seen the attack as a way of diverting attention from the anti-government protests.

"Iran has been trying to provoke the US into helping it solve its Iraq problem," said the Crisis Group, an international think tank. "The Trump administration, by responding to the attacks in Kirkuk and elsewhere with airstrikes, has obliged."

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The deployment of militia fighters, which has not been previously reported, underscores the chaotic nature of Iraqi politics amid mass protests that led to more than 100 deaths and 6,000 injuries during the week starting Oct. 1. Such militias have become a fixture here with Iran's rising influence. They sometimes operate in conjunction with Iraqi security forces but they retain their own command structures.

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The Iraqi security sources told Reuters that the leaders of Iran-aligned militias decided on their own to help put down the mass protests against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, whose one-year-old administration is backed by powerful Iran-backed armed groups and political factions.

"We have confirmed evidence that the snipers were elements of militias reporting directly to their commander instead of the chief commander of the armed forces," said one of the Iraqi security sources. "They belong to a group that is very close to the Iranians."

A second Iraqi security source, who attended daily government security briefings, said militiamen clad in black shot protesters on the third day of unrest, when the death toll soared to more than 50 from about half a dozen. The fighters were directed by Abu Zainab al-Lami, head of security for the Hashid, a grouping of mostly Shi'ite Muslim paramilitaries backed by Iran, the second source said. The Hashid leader was tasked with quashing the protests by a group of other senior militia commanders, the source said. The sources did not say how many snipers were deployed by militia groups.

A spokesman for the Hashid, Ahmed al-Asadi, denied the groups took part in the crackdown. "No members were present in the protest areas. None of the elements of the Hashid took part in confronting protesters," Asadi said in a statement to Reuters.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said state security forces did not fire directly at protesters and blamed unnamed "vicious" shooters for the mass deaths and injuries. The government has opened an investigation to determine who shot the protesters and who ordered it, Maan said in a news conference on Oct. 6.

The assertion that security forces did not participate in the violence seemed to contradict a statement on Oct. 7 from the Iraqi security forces which said excessive force had been used and promised to hold individuals accountable for violence against civilians.

An official with the prime minister's office said in a statement to Reuters Wednesday that it would be "premature to lay the blame on any parties, whether from Hashid or other security forces, before we end the investigation. Let's wait and see who gave the order 'shoot to kill.'"

Iran's role in responding to the demonstrations was another reminder of Tehran's reach in Iraq, where a sizable number of former militia commanders are now members of parliament and support the Iranian agenda. The stability of the Iraqi government is in the best interests of Iran, which has been steadily amassing influence in Iraq since 2003, when the US-led invasion toppled the Islamic republic's archenemy Saddam Hussein. Iran is Iraq's biggest trading partner.

Iran's delegation to the United Nations did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to questions from Reuters about its support of militias and their involvement in the violence against protesters. Leaders of militias in Iraq have denied getting training and weapons from Iran.

As protests entered their third day, on Oct. 3, snipers appeared on Baghdad rooftops. A Reuters cameraman who was covering the unrest near Baghdad's Tahrir Square that afternoon said he saw a sniper, wearing a balaclava and dressed in black as he stood on top of an under-construction building that overlooked the demonstrations.

Protesters fled as the sniper opened fire. One protester who was shot in the head was carried away in a large crowd. Another who was shot in the head appeared to have died and was rushed off in a truck. When his phone rang, a friend recognized that the man's brother was calling.

"Don't tell him he died," the friend said.

The protests started Oct. 1 amid public rage over chronic shortages of jobs, electricity and clean water. Iraqis blame politicians and officials for systemic corruption that has prevented Iraq from recovering after years of sectarian violence and a devastating war to defeat Islamic State.

Any vacuum of power could prove challenging for the region, given that Baghdad is an ally of both the United States and Iran, who are locked in their own political standoff. Thousands of US troops are stationed in the country in positions not far from those of Iran-backed Shiite militias.

The second security source told Reuters that the snipers were using radio communications equipment that was provided by Iran and is difficult to intercept, giving the groups an essentially private network.

A group of senior commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards traveled to Iraq on the second day of the protests and met with Iraqi intelligence and security officials, according to a diplomat in the region familiar with Iran's decision-making process. After the meeting, senior Revolutionary Guard officers with experience in curbing civil unrest continued to advise the Iraqi government, the diplomat said, although no Iranian soldiers were deployed.

A senior commander of one of the Iran-backed militias – who said his group was not involved in efforts to stop the protests or the resulting violence – said Tehran consulted closely with forces trying to quell the demonstrations.

"After two days, they jumped in and supplied the government and militias with intelligence," the militia leader told Reuters. "Iranian advisors insisted on having a role and warned us that the ongoing protests, if not reversed, will undermine the government of Abdul Mahdi."

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Before dawn, explosions were heard inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies. The US-led coalition said an investigation is underway, adding that no coalition forces or assets were hit.

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The curfew was announced early Thursday following a meeting of Iraq's top leaders to discuss anti-government protests that have engulfed the country.

Authorities say the curfew is meant to "protect general peace" and protect protesters from "infiltrators" who committed attacks against security forces and public property. It excludes travelers to and from the Baghdad airport.

Two border crossings to Iraq, including one widely used by Iranian pilgrims, have been closed because of unrest in Iraq, the semi-official news agency Mehr quoted Iran's border guards commander as saying on Thursday.

A senior Iranian pilgrimage official told state television that the Khosravi border crossing was closed, but other crossings were open ahead of an annual Shiite Muslim pilgrimage in Iraq.

Baghdad streets were largely deserted Thursday morning. In central Tahrir Square, hundreds of young protesters were gathered, and police fired tear gas canisters every now and then.

"Whether there is curfew or not we are going to continue," shouted one protester in Tahrir Square.

When the demonstrators tried to reach a nearby bridge that leads to the Green Zone Thursday morning, Iraqi security forces opened fire from automatic rifles as well as tear gas.

Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr was among the first to condemn the police violence.

The leader of the largest political party in the Iraqi Parliament, al-Sadri is known for his critical stance toward Iran. He has called for an official investigative committee to look into the police's response to the protests.

The US-led coalition, which has a presence on the ground in Iraq, issued a statement saying it is monitoring the protests and added that "we call on all sides to reduce tensions and reject violence" as the loss of life and injuries among civilians and Iraqi security forces was deeply concerning.

Coalition spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III, said that explosions were heard in the Green Zone before dawn Thursday. He said Iraqi forces were investigating and that no coalition facility was struck.

The protests, which have been concentrated in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces in the country's south, appear to be spontaneous and without political leadership, organized by people on social media against corruption and lack of basic services, such as electricity and water.

Dozens of university graduates unable to find jobs in the corruption-plagued but oil-rich country also joined the rallies.

Eleven people were killed during protests overnight in two southern Iraqi cities, including a policeman, police and medical sources said on Thursday, raising the death toll to 18 since anti-government protests turned violent two days ago.

Seven protesters and a policeman died in Nassiriya during clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Four more people were killed in the city of Amara, the sources said.

On Thursday morning, Baghdad residents said the Internet was still cut in much of the country. NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, reported that Internet access was cut off across much of Iraq and social and messaging apps blocked amid the growing unrest.

The unrest spread quickly from small-scale protests in Baghdad on Tuesday. At least two people were killed that day as security forces opened live fire and shot water cannon and tear gas. Five more were killed on Wednesday, including a child. Hundreds have been wounded including demonstrators and police.

During Wednesday's protests, demonstrators decried the country's allegiance to foreign states and government corruption, which they called a "betrayal of the homeland."

Sargon, a Baghdad native, told Israel Hayom he supported the protests.

"We are interested in freedom. Iran doesn't even bother to hide its intentions of using Iraq as a battlefield to protect itself in the wars it is starting. I support the protesters with all my heart. We deserve liberty and freedom," he said.

Another Baghdad resident and engineer by profession told Israel Hayom: "What you are seeing is a revolution by the Iraqi people against the worst government in the world – a gang of thieves. We will achieve victory for the people and death for those who betrayed Baghdad."

According to reports, police responded with riot dispersal measures and live fire after protesters tried to break into Baghdad International Airport.

The protests are the largest against Abdul Mahdi's government, which took office nearly a year ago, and the largest in the country since September 2018.

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No coalition or US-occupied facility was struck in Monday night's attack in which two Katyusha rockets were fired into the heavily fortified Green Zone, according to a statement issued by the coalition and Iraqi security forces.

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The rockets landed a few hundred meters away from the US Embassy compound's perimeters, triggering alert sirens that sounded across the capital's Tigris River.

"We take this incident seriously as do our Iraqi security forces partners," the coalition statement said.

No side has claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid heightened tensions in the region following an attack on Saudi oil installations that the US has blamed on Iran.

Similar attacks in the past have sometimes been blamed by Iraqi forces on Iranian-backed militias in Baghdad.

The militias have recently said they will retaliate to a series of airstrikes that have targeted their bases and weapons depots in recent weeks. No one has claimed the attacks but Israel, which frequently targets Iranian interests in neighboring Syria, is believed to be behind at least some of them. Some Iran-backed groups have publicly blamed Israel and its US ally by extension.

A member of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the umbrella group for Iran-backed militias, said the forces fired the rockets at the Green Zone from the Dora district southwest of the capital. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give this information.

A senior security official refrained from pointing fingers and said authorities were still investigating Tuesday night's rocket attack. Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, the official said that Iran-backed militias were likely to have fired the rockets considering they had vowed to retaliate to the airstrikes on their bases.

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Residents heard the explosions followed by alert sirens that sounded briefly across the Tigris River. It was the second such attack since May, when a rocket was fired into the Green Zone, landing near the sprawling US Embassy compound. Such attacks have been blamed on Iranian-backed militias in Baghdad, some of whom want US troops stationed in Iraq to leave.

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Monday's attack comes amid heightened tensions in the region following an attack on Saudi oil installations that the US and Britain have blamed on Iran.

There also has been a series of airstrikes on bases belonging to Iran-backed militias in Iraq that the militias have blamed on Israel and its US ally by extension. Israel, which frequently targets Iranian interests in neighboring Syria, has not confirmed its involvement in the airstrikes inside Iraq.

Officials said there was no word of casualties from Monday's attack, which coincided with a sound bomb targeting a club in central Baghdad that caused damage to cars parked outside.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

As tensions escalate between the US and Iran, there have been concerns that Baghdad could once again get caught in the middle. Baghdad's fragile government is allied with both sides and has struggled to remain neutral in the conflict.

Earlier this year, the US ordered nonessential staff out of its diplomatic posts in Iraq after an alleged, unexplained threat from Iran.

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It was the deadliest stampede in recent history during Ashoura commemorations, when hundreds of thousands of people converge on the city, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, for the occasion every year.

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The stampede happened toward the end of the Ashoura procession, causing a panicked rush among worshippers near the gold-domed Imam Husayn Shrine, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press from Karbala.

Afdhal al-Shami, a shrine official, denied that there was a collapse or any cracks in the walkway. "It was a stampede that led to this incident," he said.

Mohammed Shenin Jebir, a pilgrim, said everything happened very suddenly.

"Visitors suddenly fell on the ground and there was a strong stampede, there were many pilgrims who all fell on top of each other," he said, speaking after being treated at the Hussein Medical City in Karbala for cuts and bruises above his right eye.

The somber day of Ashoura commemorates the killing of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, by a rival Muslim faction in Karbala in what is now Iraq, in 680 AD. Hussein and his descendants are seen by Shiites as the rightful heirs to the prophet. Hussein's killing has been attributed with cementing the schism between Shiite and Sunni Islam.

In recent years, Ashoura processions have been attacked by extremist Sunni militants. In 2004, at the height of Iraq's sectarian violence, 143 people were killed in near-simultaneous suicide and other bombings at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala during the Ashoura procession.

In 2005, rumors of a suicide bomber among worshippers crossing a bridge during a different religious holiday caused a massive stampede killing more than 950 people, many of whom jumped, in their panic, into the Tigris River.

Tuesday's commemorations were peaceful until the walkway collapsed, triggering the chaos.

The officials said the stampede took place during the so-called "Tweireej run," when tens of thousands of people run toward the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala around noon.

The 2-3 kilometer (1-2 mile) run symbolizes when the maternal cousins of Imam Hussein's half-brother Al-Abbas ran from the nearby village of Tweireej to rescue him, only to find out that he had been killed.

The officials – one of them at the Imam Hussein shrine and the other a security official – spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

At least 10 among the injured pilgrims were in critical condition, according to the officials.

"We lament this tragic loss of life and wish those injured a swift and full recovery," US Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller said, offering his condolences to the families of the victims on behalf of the US Embassy in Baghdad.

The president and prime minister also offered their condolences and said they were following investigations into the incident.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of thousands of black-clad pilgrims held Ashoura processions amid beefed-up security in Karbala and in the capital, Baghdad, marching through the streets. Many of the faithful beat their chests and lashed themselves with chains in a symbolic expression of grief and regret for not being able to help Hussein before his martyrdom.

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