MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week, in the Iraqi city of Karbala, the annual commemoration unfolded of the seventh century killing of the central figure in Shia Islam - more than 20 million pilgrims, including more than 3 million Iranians. This year, with the U.S. war in Iran, the event carried even more significance, as NPR's Jane Arraf reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Crying).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: In 1,400 years, mourning over the death of Imam Hussein has not diminished.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Crying).
ARRAF: It wasn't an ordinary death. Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was surrounded by a powerful army, deprived of water and then beheaded after opposing a leader he believed was unfit to succeed the prophet. It was the defining event of the split between Shia and Sunni Islam.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Chanting in non-English language).
ARRAF: Inside the shrine, pilgrims press against the gold and silver encrusted latticework around the spot where he died - many hitting themselves in grief.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
ARRAF: The voices rise and fall, different accents, different languages, the same lament.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Outside, there are young men holding an Iranian and Iraqi flag linked together. Some carry photos of Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, along with his family, in February.
One hundred sixteen degrees on the thermometer. But the heat hits you in waves. There's a burning wind coming in, and it just feels even hotter. In between the shrines, there's a covered walkway, and every so often, fans are spraying cooling mists of water. But this is still grueling - imagine after walking here for days like many of these pilgrims have.
Maryam Ghanbari, a municipal worker, walked from the Iranian border about 200 miles away.
MARYAM GHANBARI: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: She tells us many pilgrims have come this year because people are praying for vengeance for the killing of Khamenei. Most Iranians on pilgrimage here are fervent supporters of the country's Islamic regime. Those who are anti-regime are not talking.
NASER ZADIH: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Naser Zadih, a teacher from Tabriz, says Khamenei's killing has only increased support for resistance against the U.S. and Israel.
ZADIH: (Through interpreter) It helped this movement become deeper and more targeted. It's helped us flaunt the power of the Shia more to the face of the world, to show that the Shia are building their own civilization.
ARRAF: He says Iranians have learned to deal with the economic hardship of the war. This is the culture of resistance, he says.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Chanting in non-English language).
ARRAF: Mohammad Yasin Ahmadi is 15 and from the Iranian holy city of Qom.
MOHAMMAD YASIN AHMADI: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: He says most Iranians are here this year because of Khamenei. Before he was buried in July, the supreme leader's body was first taken to Karbala and Najaf. This Arba'in has the scent and the feeling of the ayatollah, the teenager says.
The Iranians we talk to stress they have nothing against the American people, that they believe that Americans, too, are suffering from U.S. policy. They say this time, it is the U.S. government and not an army 1,400 years ago, waging war on the Shia.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Karbala, Iraq.
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