Shiite Muslims commemorate Ashura in Karbala, Iraq, October 12, 2016.

ISIS has claimed a suicide bombing that killed six civilians near Iraq’s holy city of Karbala on Monday at the start of a major Shiite Muslim ritual.

The Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said six suicide bombers tried on Monday to infiltrate the holy Shiite city of Karbala, but security forces managed to kill five of them in the rural area of Ain al-Tamr.

Maan added that the sixth bomber, however, broke into a house where he blew up himself, killing six and wounding six.

The attack took place as hundreds of thousands of Shiites were gathering to mark Arbaeen, which comes at the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

Huge crowds visit the shrines of Hussein and his half-brother Abbas in Karbala, where they were killed in the 7th century AD, in a revolt against the Umayyad ruler Yazeed.

ISIS said in a statement it had planned to target Shiite Muslims, police and army personnel. ISIS claims Shiite Muslims are apostates and has regularly attacked their mosques and events.

Iraq is currently trying to recapture Mosul, its second largest city from ISIS. Four weeks into the campaign to crush ISIS in Mosul, the city is almost surrounded but the militants’ defenses have been breached so far only to the east, where they have battled elite troops for control of up to a dozen districts.

Local actors dressed as ancient warriors re-enact a scene from the 7th century battle of Karbala during commemoration in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq October 12, 2016.

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