Officials in Najaf estimated that at least a million pilgrims arrived in the city to pay their respects under heavy security at the golden-domed shrine to Imam Ali, one of the sect's pivotal figures.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, two bombs tore through the convoy of a high ranking Iraqi interior ministry official, killing seven people but leaving the official unscathed, a security source said.
The US military also announced the deaths of three US soldiers in southern Baghdad when a roadside bomb destroyed their vehicle Saturday, part of a dramatic rise in US military casualties in Iraq this month.
Najaf, by contrast, was peaceful, with carefully organized city services receiving the massive influx of pilgrims from all across Iraq and neighboring Iran and funneling them to the shrine.
Pilgrims paid their respects, kissing the doorways and walls of the shrine itself, before making prayers and vows to the founder of the Shiite sect, assassinated in 661 AD.
"I am happy and stunned," said Mohammed Jawad, a 36-year-old journalist from the southern city of Basra. "There were huge numbers of people performing their rituals without incident. I was amazed at the organization."
All traffic in the old city was banned and pilgrims were ferried from outlying checkpoints to the shrine by specially marked cars to prevent the possibility of car bomb attacks. "The ceremonies went off as planned without any incident on a security and organizational level," said Najaf deputy governor Abdul Hussein Abtan.
"There were a million pilgrims according to the figures of the transportation people," he added. "The popular committees did an excellent job of protecting the pilgrims and providing services."
Iranian pilgrim Gholam Redha, a 50-year-old civil servant, who came to Najaf last year for the event said that it was much better organized this time around. "Thanks be to God, I performed my rituals and the visit was perfect - unlike last year," he said. "There no problems this time around."
There were plenty of problems elsewhere in the country, however, especially in Baghdad, where a series of explosions killed a total of 10 people.
Hala Mohammed Shakr, head of the interior ministry's financial department, escaped unscathed when the two bombs exploded near her convoy, but five bystanders and two bodyguards were killed, while two cars were set ablaze. Two other blasts in southern Baghdad killed three other civilians.
The northern oil city of Kirkuk, which over the past months has seen a steady rise in violence, was the scene of suicide car bomb attacked that killed at least five people, according to police Brigadier General Adul Ibrahim.
A Facility Protect Service convoy - guards assigned to ministries and government buildings - was attacked in the center of Kirkuk injuring 10 people. A second car bomb exploded in a market place killing three people, wounding nine, and setting fire to a building.
Over the past two weeks, there have been several intense military operations aimed at squashing an Al Qaeda-linked insurgent group that has been carrying out a bombing campaign in the country.
Another two people died south of Baghdad, including a policeman, while police pulled two fish-eaten corpses out of the Tigris River downriver from the capital. Tikrit police reported that their grim haul of bodies for Saturday was 40.
Saturday also saw the death of four US servicemen, three in the Baghdad bomb attack and a marine in the restive city of Fallujah, west of the capital. There has been a dramatic increase in attacks on US servicemen and women, with at least 50 troops killed since the beginning of October.
The deaths bring the number of US military personnel in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,759, according to a count based on Pentagon figures.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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