BAGHDAD, July 27: Gunmen shot dead seven pilgrims heading to a holy shrine in Baghdad on Sunday despite tight security for a major religious gathering expected to attract up to one million worshippers.

The seven men were gunned down in the town of Madin, just south of the Iraqi capital, police said, and a doctor at a Baghdad hospital confirmed receiving their bodies.

Up to a million pilgrims are expected to flock to Baghdad for a major congregation on Tuesday that commemorates revered imam Mussa Kazim who died 12 centuries ago.

Security is especially tight at the Kazimiyah mosque in northwestern Baghdad, where Kadhim is said to be buried, and has in the past been the site of attacks.

In August 2005, at least 965 people died in a stampede at a Baghdad bridge seen as a symbol of Kazim’s death, triggered by rumours that a suicide bomber was in their midst and following a mortar attack on the mosque that killed seven people.

Wary of more insurgent attacks this year, the authorities in Baghdad have stepped up security measures for the occasion although pilgrims were flocking to the capital amid an overall drop in violence.

Wifaq Aziz, an Iraqi refugee living in Iran, said he was pleased to be home after 20 years living abroad to escape the regime of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and the violence after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Worshippers will congregate at the Kazimiyah mosque to mourn Kazim’s death..

“There is more than a full brigade deployed in the vicinity, entrances and exits of the city, and in the surrounding areas of Kazimiyah city, for fear of attacks,” a defence ministry source said.—AFP