Muslim pilgrims start trek home

Muslim pilgrims start trek home

SAUDI ARABIA: Muslim worshipers began leaving holy Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the fifth and final day of the haj pilgrimage which was overshadowed this year by a looming U.S.-led war on Iraq.

The bulk of the two million pilgrims started trekking out of Mina, in western Saudi Arabia, for the nearby Muslim holy city of Mecca where they will perform a final ritual of circling the revered Kaaba, Islam's most sacred shrine, before heading home.

Fourteen pilgrims were crushed to death at Mina's Jamarat Bridge on Tuesday during a traditionally accident-prone phase of the haj, where pilgrims stone a pillar symbolizing the devil.

In 2001 at least 35 people died in a stampede at the bridge and 119 died in a similar incident in 1998. The haj has been prone to disasters, but in its bloodiest tragedy in 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were trampled to death in a tunnel. --Reuters