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Iraq Stampede Toll Rises To 953

Panic engulfed thousands of Shiites marching across a bridge in a religious procession Wednesday after rumors spread that a suicide bomber was about to attack, triggering a stampede that killed nearly a thousand people.

The death toll rose Thursday, as Iraq's Interior Ministry said that the number of people who died now stands at 953. Another 815 were injured.

Most of the pilgrims in the accident — predominantly women and children — were trampled to death on the Two Imams bridge, although some jumped or were pushed into the muddy Tigris River about 30 feet below and drowned, officials said.

It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

Tensions already had been running high in the procession in Baghdad's heavily Shiite Kazimiyah district because of a mortar attack two hours earlier against a shrine where the marchers were heading. The shrine was about a mile from the bridge.

CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan reports that Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi said someone shouted there was a suicide bomber in the crowd. Even though no bomb exploded, the fear alone was deadly as hundreds were either crushed in the panic or drowned in the Tigris.

Reflecting the confusion, casualty figures from various government agencies also varied widely. The Health Ministry said 769 people were killed and 307 wounded, while the Interior Ministry put the figure at 844 dead and 458 injured. The country's biggest Shiite party gave figures of 759 dead and 300 wounded. Other reports estimated the death toll would climb above 1,000.

In other recent developments in Iraq:

  • U.S. forces in Iraq suffered at least 74 combat deaths in August — more than in any month since last November and the third-highest total for any month of the war, according to Pentagon figures.
  • A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in the city of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.
  • Eyewitnesses said the town of Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, was quiet and virtually deserted Wednesday after a day of U.S. airstrikes and heavy fighting between the pro-government Bumahl tribe and the pro-insurgent Karabilah tribe. Iraqi officials said 45 people had died, most in the tribal clashes, during which hundreds of residents fled their homes and took refuge in the surrounding countryside. The border region is considered a prime infiltration route for smugglers and foreign militants trying to reach central and western Iraq.
  • The U.S. ambassador to Iraq suggested Tuesday there may be further changes to the draft constitution in order to win Sunni Arab approval, saying he believed a "final, final draft" had not yet been presented. Zalmay Khalilzad spoke alongside Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, who urged Sunnis to reject the constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum as it stands. The presence of Khalilzad with a respected Sunni figure is seen as a sign the Bush administration has not given up on its campaign to win Sunni endorsement.

    Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared a three-day mourning period after the tragedy.

    Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said three suicide bombers were stopped Wednesday some distance from the shrine, but "they blew themselves up before reaching their destination."

    Dr. Hamid Jassim, the head of a medical team accompanying the pilgrims, said some people did go off the bridge at the start of the stampede, but the crowds soon started pressing in both directions, and "most of the casualties either died from suffocation or from being trampled,"

    "Many of the panicked people who jumped into the Tigris trying to save themselves survived with broken bones. Others drowned because they did not know how to swim," he said.

    Thousands of people rushed to both banks of the river to search for survivors, and bare-chested men jumped in to try to recover bodies.

    Scores of bodies covered with white sheets lay on the sidewalk outside one hospital because the morgue was jammed. Many of them were women in black gowns, as well as children and old men.

    Sobbing relatives wandered amid the dead, lifting the sheets to try to identify their kin. When they found them, they would shriek in grief, pound their chests or collapse to the ground, sobbing.

    Hundreds of thousands of Shiites had been marching across the bridge, which links the Kazimiyah with the heavily Sunni Azamiyah neighborhood. They were heading for the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, a 9th century Shiite saint, about a mile from the span.

    Television reports said about 1 million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the shrine for the annual commemoration of the saint's death.

    Al-Dulaimi said the huge Shiite procession had jammed up at a security checkpoint on the western end of the bridge, which was closed months ago to prevent movement by extremists from the Sunni neighborhood to the Shiite district.

    "Pushing started when a rumor was spread by a terrorist who claimed that there was a person with an explosive belt, which caused panic," Interior Minister Bayn Jabr. "Some fell from the bridge, others fell on the barricades" and were trampled to death.

    Police later said they found no explosives — either on any individual or in any cars parked nearby.

    "We were on the bridge. It was so crowded. Thousands of people were surrounding me," said survivor Fadhel Ali, 28, barefoot and soaking wet. "We heard that a suicide attacker was among the crowd. Everybody was yelling, so I jumped from the bridge into the river, swam and reached the bank. I saw women, children and old men falling after me into the water."

    First reports suggested that the bridge's railing collapsed, but TV video showed the green, waist-high railing undamaged.

    Shiite processions, which can draw huge crowds, are often targeted by Sunni extremists seeking to trigger sectarian war, so worshippers are on guard for trouble.

    Mortar shells had exploded in the shrine compound about two hours earlier, killing at least seven people. U.S. Apache helicopters fired at the attackers.

    In March 2004 suicide attackers struck worshippers at the Imam Kadhim shrine and a holy site in Karbala, killing at least 181 overall.

    The head of the country's major Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, told Al-Jazeera television that Wednesday's disaster was "another catastrophe and something else that could be added to the list of ongoing Iraqi tragedies."

    "On this occasion we want to express our condolences to all the Iraqis and the parents of the martyrs, who fell today in Kazimiyah and all over Iraq," said the cleric, Haith al-Dhari.

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