Crowds of Shiites celebrate Ashura in south Lebanon Millions of muslims across the Shiite world, from Lebanon to south Asia, held processions on Saturday, performing a variety of rituals, many involving flagellation (beating their heads with a sword until their faces and their white mourning robes are covered in blood), to mark Ashura, the commemoration which defines the sectarian split within Islam. IMAGES in Nabatieh, in south Lebanon