More than 2 million Muslims concluded the annual pilgrimage Thursday with a farewell visit to the Grand Mosque, where they were guided and controlled by thousands of security officers anxious to avoid a repeat of the stampede that left 14 people dead.
The Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, overflowed with pilgrims saying prayers before leaving the holy city on Thursday evening. "Although this is the fourth time I've performed the hajj, I feel like I've accomplished something great in my life, and I will come again as long as I can afford it," said Syrian Abdullah Aboos.

Before arriving in Mecca for a final ritual of walking seven times around the Kaaba, a stone cube, the pilgrims performed the symbolic stoning of the devil.

They threw seven small pebbles at three gray stone pillars amid chants of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," symbolically rejecting the devil's earthly temptations.

On Tuesday, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death and 15 were injured as a result of overcrowding during the stoning ritual.

Dozens of security personnel stood around the pillars Thursday, dividing pilgrims into orderly waves as hundreds of police officers encouraged the faithful to leave as soon as they finished.

"No serious accidents have been reported so far," Brig. Saeed al-Qahtani told Saudi television in a live interview Thursday.

"But our forces will remain on high alert until the end of the rituals."

Before leaving Saudi Arabia, some pilgrims will visit Medina, where Muhammad, Islam's seventh century prophet, is buried.

"I feel more worried and responsible after completing the hajj. God has washed away all my sins and I don't want to commit any more sins - and that is a grave responsibility," said Tarek Abdul Moati, an Egyptian.

About 1,000 Iranian pilgrims held a demonstration in the tent city of Mina, shouting "Death to America! Death to Israel!"
"America has been targeting Muslim states for many years, and it is supporting Israel, which is killing the Palestinian people," said Hasan Ahmadi, leader of the protesters. "After Sept. 11, America blamed what they called Muslim extremists.
They just want to label Islam with terrorism. Those who carried out the attacks are not Muslims and do not belong to Islam because Islam is against terrorism."

The demonstration ended without incident.

In their annual message to pilgrims on Wednesday, Saudi King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah said that Islam had warned its followers about terrorism.

"Terrorism means causing havoc on earth and is an aggression against others. We adopt our position based on the Quran and its verses," they said in a statement issued a day after the broadcast of an audiotape, purportedly recorded by Osama bin Laden , in which the leader of the al-Qaida terror group called on Muslims to help defend Iraq against U.S. attack.

Most pilgrims, preoccupied with the hajj, did not hear the Al-Jazeera satellite station's broadcast of the tape.

But many pilgrims dismissed any advice from the al-Qaida leader.

Able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj at least once if they can afford it. The pilgrimage amounts to a spiritual journey that, according to Islamic teachings, cleanses the soul and wipes away sins.

The hajj has been the source of tragic events in the past. In 2001, 35 people died in a stampede. In 1997, more than 340 people died in a fire that ripped through pilgrims' tents in Mina.

PHOTO CAPTION

An elderly pilgrim sits on a hill watching some of the thousands of Muslim pilgrims headed away from Mina, Saudi Arabia Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003, after the end of the ritual of 'Stoning the Devil'. Most of the pilgrims are expected to pay a farewell visit to the Grand Mosque in Mecca before finishing their Hajj for this year. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)