Mussab Al-Khairalla, Reuters

BAGHDAD, 16 January 2004 — Amid heightened security, the first batch of Iraqi pilgrims began leaving for Saudi Arabia yesterday to perform Haj.

Hundreds of joyful pilgrims, many waving banners and beating drums, gathered in northern Baghdad to begin the first stage of a journey that will first take them to Iraq’s southern neighbor and one-time foe, Kuwait, before heading to Saudi Arabia.

The Haj, that all able-bodied Muslims are supposed to perform at least once in their lives, is due to begin in early February and lasts for up to two weeks.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, head of Iraq’s Haj committee said Wednesday that earlier plans for pilgrims to leave from Baghdad airport had been cancelled for “technical reasons”.

In recent months, insurgents have fired several planes landing or taking off from the airport on.

“We won’t use Baghdad airport. We are now left with two choices, Kuwait airport and traveling by land,” Jaafari said.

He said negotiations with the Kuwaiti authorities were under way and added he planned to send 29,000 of Iraq’s allotted 32,000 pilgrims through Kuwait’s International airport.

As they gathered in a northern district of Baghdad to take buses to Kuwait, joyful pilgrims bade emotional farewells to relatives who helped them carry luggage.

Hayder Mehdi, a man in his 30s, was among the first to leave yesterday and said he was thrilled to be making the journey, the first Haj in the post-Saddam era.

“The pilgrims are so happy this year, the old and the young will be able to go,” he said. During Saddam’s rule, only elderly pilgrims were allowed to make the journey.

An elderly woman who was chosen out of the 250,000 applicants that applied this year said: “This has been my ambition for nine years, only today have I realized my dream, thank God for this.”

Two US Democrat senators who recently visited Iraq on a fact-finding mission raised concerns about security during the pilgrimage, with fears that militants could use the period to sneak into Iraq and stage attacks.

In a letter sent to the Bush administration earlier this month, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said US military commanders in Iraq had raised such concerns during their trip in November. But many Iraqis think the threat is exaggerated.

“The Americans are exaggerating the situation, why would anyone target pilgrims?” Zuhair Kathim, who owns a shop near to where the pilgrims were gathering, said.