Hajj pilgrimage gets underway

After taking part in initial Hajj rituals, hundreds of thousands of people left Mecca's Grand Mosque on Saturday, and headed for the nearby plain of Mina, where a vast array of tents have been pitched to house the pilgrims for the night.

At sunrise on Sunday, they will head about 20 kilometers east of Mecca to Mount Arafat, following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammed, who performed the same rituals about 1,400 years ago.

Roughly 1.3 million Muslims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from at least 160 countries, while at least 100,000 Saudis have traveled from all over the country to take part in the pilgrimage.

Pilgrims described seeing increased security measures, including CCTV cameras and GPS bracelets, which help identify and guide them through the congested Hajj sites. The technology has been introduced after last year's deadly stampede, the worst disaster in Hajj history.

The crush, on September 24, happened at an intersection of two streets in Mina, close to where the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual takes place.

Death toll disputed

Although the Saudi government issued an official death toll of 769, data from foreign officials in more than 30 countries gave a tally almost three times higher - at least 2,297. The Riyadh government has, so far, not released the outcome of its investigation into the tragedy.

Many pilgrims told news agencies on Saturday they were satisfied with the changes.

"Everything is well organized," said Nasser Benfitah, 54, from Morocco.

"We feel safe," added Nigerian pilgrim, Hafsa Amina, 26.

All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage is seen as a chance to wipe clean past sins, allowing many people to deepen their faith.

Iranians head west

But Iranian nationals have been denied entry to the country because of ongoing tensions between Tehran and Riyadh, which were magnified following last year's stampede when 464 Iranians died, according to Iranian government figures.

Tehran has complained that Saudi officials have failed to fully investigate the crush or guarantee the safety of this year's pilgrims.

Instead, an estimated hundreds of thousands of Iranians have traveled to the Iraqi city of Karbala for an alternative pilgrimage at the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites.

"I expect the number of pilgrims to reach a million, about 75 percent of them Iranians," Adel al-Mussawi, a shrine official, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations, are on opposite sides in the wars in Yemen and Syria and Iranian authorities have questioned the kingdom's custodianship of Islam's holiest sites.

mm/tj (AFP, AP, dpa)