Iraqi religious event mostly calm

BAGHDAD, July 18 (UPI) -- Millions of Shiites converged on a holy shrine in Baghdad Saturday in a peaceful pilgrimage that in recent years had been marred by violence, officials said.

The pilgrims' walk to the gold-domed shrine in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district to honor an eighth-century imam was protected by a strong showing of security forces to ward off attacks by Sunni extremists who have struck in past years, The New York Times reported.

To keep the peace, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police filled the area, closing major streets and banning cars and motorbikes.

The day was not without violence elsewhere in Iraq, with at least five people killed, the Times said.

In Fallujah, a roadside bomb killed three people as a car carrying an Awakening Council leader passed. Police said the leader, Sheik Naeim Salih al-Halbosi, survived but a son and two other passengers died.

A police officer was killed near Mosul when a bomb was detonated at a checkpoint. Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the area as well.

Also in Mosul, a civilian was shot to death by unidentified gunmen, police said.