Thursday, September 1, 2005
Over 840 killed in Baghdad stampede
Agence France-Presse
Baghdad, August 31, 2005
At least 843 people were crushed to death or drowned on Wednesday in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge triggered by fears a suicide bomber was among vast crowds of Shi'ite pilgrims massed for a religious ceremony.
Iraq authorities said the tragedy, which unfolded after a deadly mortar attack on a Shi'ite shrine, was a "terrorist" act by toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's loyalists and Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zaqrqawi.
A security official said 843 were killed and 388 injured in the crush of panicked pilgrims, adding: "We are still recovering bodies from the river."
Many of the victims of the deadliest incident in Iraq since the US-led invasion more than two years ago were women, children and elderly people, hospital officials said.
Most were trampled to death or fell from Al-Aaimmah bridge into the Tigris river as panic gripped thousands of pilgrims from an estimated one million attempting to make their way to the Kadhimiya mosque in the north of the city.
"There was a huge crowd on the bridge and what happened was that one terrorist spread a rumour that led to the stampede," Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh told state-owned Iraqia television.
"The terrorist pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives... and that led to the panic."
The incident could further stoke tensions between the country's Shi'ite majority and the ousted Sunni elite which has provided the backbone to the raging insurgency, only days after divisions were revived over the writing of the country's post-Saddam constitution.
"It was Saddamists and Zarqawists who spread ruours on the bridge and that is why people panicked," national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told the television.
A carpet of shoes belonging to the victims littered the bridge where waist-high concrete barriers designed to foil car bombers were stained with the blood of victims who had been crushed against them.
People injured lined the corridors of Baghdad's hospitals as they struggled to cope with the enormity of the disaster.
"The crowd started to panic and women and children were being trampled underfoot," said Abdul Walid, 54, lying dazed on a hospital floor. "My son was on my shoulders, I don't know where he is now — everybody was suffocating to death so I eventually had to jump" off the bridge.
The stampede occurred after the Kadhimiya mosque — the burial place of Shi'ite imam Mussa Kazim who died 12 centuries ago — came under mortar fire, leaving at least seven dead and 37 wounded.
The US Military said its helicopters had fired on the rebels who carried out the mortar attack and Iraqi officials said seven of them were killed.
Officials said 25 people died of poisoning after eating or drinking products that had been deliberately contaminated.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a member of the majority Shi'ite community, declared a three-day mourning period and went on television to appeal for national unity.
Health Minister Abdul Mutalib Mohammad Ali demanded the resignation of the interior and defence ministers whom he blamed for the tragedy.
Shi'ites, long repressed under Saddam, have been one of the main targets of the Sunni-led insurgency. In March last year more than 170 people were killed in almost simultaneous attacks in Karbala and Baghdad mosques as faithful Shi'ites marked a religious festival.
The tragedy came amid deep divisions in the country over Iraq's draft constitution, which is opposed by disgruntled Sunni Arabs who are now seeking alliances to defeat the charter in an October 15 referendum.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad hinted that the draft constitution, presented to parliament on Sunday after weeks of tortuous negotiations that failed to bring the Sunnis on board, was still an incomplete document.
"If Iraqis amongst themselves, in the assembly and of course from outside, decide to make some adjustments to the draft that was presented two or three days ago, it is entirely up to them," he told reporters.
"I believe that a final, final draft has not yet been — or the edits have not been — presented yet, so that is something that Iraqis will have to talk to each other and decide for themselves."
The Sunni leaders, who are mobilising the community to strike alliances across the sectarian divide, said they were opening talks with radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr, who has said he rejects any constitution drafted under the US-led occupation, enjoys widespread support among poor urban Shi'ites. His militia led one of Iraq's fiercest rebellions against US-led forces last year.
On Tuesday, the US military launched air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts near the Syrian border, killing at least 56 people.
The military claimed strikes targeting the hideouts were thought to have killed Abu Islam, a reported Al-Qaeda operative, and several associates.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.