Over 750 Dead In Iraq Stampede
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 at least 769 people.
Most of the pilgrims — 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.
Dr. Swadi Karim of the Health Ministry operations section said the toll from the bridge disaster stands at 769 dead and 307 injured, some critically. Figures from other official sources varied because survivors were rushed in ambulances and private cars to many hospitals, and officials were scrambling to compile accurate casualty figures.
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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.