Shafaq News/ The 110th brigade of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) is participating in a plan to secure the Iranian pilgrims heading to Karbala for the Arbaeen pilgrimage, Major-General Dhaher Habib al-Mandalawi said on Saturday.

"More than 500 members of the 110th PMF brigade are partaking in the plan devised to protect the road the Iranian pilgrims will walk from Khanaqin till the end of the Hemrin basin," the commander of the brigade that includes mainly Fayli-Kurds told Shafaq News Agency.

"The plan includes escorting the pilgrims and dispatching patrols along the road between al-Muntheriyah and al-Miqdadiyah," he said, "the plan will remain in force until the end of the event."

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens have begun to flock to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the Arbaeen anniversary, a Shiite religious observance that occurs forty days after Ashura.