Toll to Hit 1000 Dead – Shiite Stampede and Panic in Baghdad

Iraq stampede toll to hit 1,000-health official

BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (Reuters) – The death toll in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge is expected to reach 1,000, a general manager at Iraq’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

“An hour ago the death toll was 695 killed, but we expect it to hit 1,000,” according to Dr Jaseb Latif Ali.

Relatives and rescuers at the side of the Tigris look for survivors.

Scores drowned in Tigris river

There was confusion over what caused the railing to collapse on the bridge to the city’s heavily Shiite Kazamiyah district, but police also said there were unconfirmed reports that the stampede may have been caused when someone in the crowd shouted there was a suicide bomber among them.

After the collapse, thousands of people rushed to both banks of the river to search for survivors. Hundreds of men stripped down and waded into the muddy water downstream from the bridge, trying to extract bodies floating in the water.

Tensions had been running high after a mortar and rocket attack some two hours earlier killed at least seven people and injured at least 40 near the Imam Mousa al-Kadim shrine, the destination of the worshippers. The shrine is about a mile from the bridge. U.S. Apache helicopters fired on the attackers, a U.S. statement said.

“We saw the dead scattered on the ground and the injured were taken to al-Kadimiyah hospital for treatment. There are more injured children than the men and women,” the medical worker said.

Television reports said about one million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the Imam Mousa al-Kadim shrine in the capital’s Kazimiyah district for the annual commemoration of the Shiite saint’s death.

Crushed to Death on Baghdad Bridge

People crushed to death against concrete wall on bridge when panic broke out of suspected suicide bombers when mortar exploded.

BBC News Coverage

The incident happened on a bridge over the Tigris River as hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims marched as part of an annual religious festival.

Breaking News :: Over 630 killed in Shiite stampede

BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than 630 people were killed after a stampede was sparked by a deadly mortar strike near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad, many of them drowning after falling off a bridge, a security source said.

It was the largest single death toll since the insurgency in Iraq was unleashed after Saddam Hussein’s ouster in April 2003.

Rebels fired three mortar rounds close to the Kadhimiyah shrine, as thousands of Shiites were gathering to celebrate the death anniversary of the seventh imam, Mussa Kazim.

The latest round of violence came a day after US air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts in Iraq near the Syrian border killed at least 56 people. “At least 56 people were killed in the air strikes carried out by US forces near Qaim close to the Syrian border,” a security source told AFP.