Millions of Shia Muslims are converging on the Iraqi city of Karbala for an annual pilgrimage, despite a spate of recent bombings that have targeted their community.

Two years ago, more than 50 Shia pilgrims were killed on their journey, most of them women and children.

Refusing to be deterred, just hours after the bombing, the pilgrimage continued, as it has done every year since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad.