BDx13
|
|
648 Dead, 322 Hurt in Iraq Bridge Stampede
i can't even comprehend how something like this can happen. 648 dead?!
-----
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
At least 648 people were killed in a stampede on a bridge Wednesday when panic engulfed a Shiite religious procession amid rumors that a suicide
bomber was about to attack, officials said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
Scores jumped or were pushed to their deaths into the Tigris River, while others were crushed in the crowd. Most of the dead were women and children,
Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.
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 the shrine where the marchers were heading. The shrine was about a mile from the bridge.
Abdul-Rahman said 648 were killed and 322 injured, with survivors rushed in ambulances and private cars to several hospitals, where officials
scrambled to compile accurate casualty figures.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared a three-day mourning period.
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 bodies, 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 a Sunni and Shiite neighborhood, heading for the tomb of Imam Mousa
al-Kadhim, a 9th century Shiite saint.
Television reports said about 1 million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the shrine in the capital's Kazimiyah district
for the annual commemoration of the saint's death. The shrine is about a mile from the bridge.
"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."
Health Minister Abdul-Mutalib Mohammed told state-run Iraqiya television that there were "huge crowds on the bridge and the disaster happened when
someone shouted that there is a suicide bomber on the bridge."
"This led to a state of panic among the pilgrims and they started to push each other and there was many cases of suffocation," he said.
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.
First reports suggested that the bridge's railing collapsed, but TV video showed the green, waist-high railing undamaged.
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.
Shiite religious festivals have often been targeted for attack by Sunni extremists seeking to trigger civil war among the rival communities.
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.
Elsewhere, 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 heavy fighting
between the pro-government Bumahl tribe and the pro-insurgent Karabilah tribe. Iraqi officials said 45 people had died in the 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.
This week's violence came amid new twists about Iraq's draft constitution. On Tuesday, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad raised the possibility of
further changes to the draft charter finalized by the dominant Kurdish and Shiite Arab bloc but vehemently opposed by Arab Sunnis who form the core of
the armed insurgency.
Sunnis had demanded revisions in the constitution, and Khalilzad's move indicated the Bush administration has not given up its campaign to obtain some
sort of Sunni endorsement for the national charter.
Khalilzad said he believed "a final, final draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet" ? a strong hint to Shiites and Kurds
that Washington wants another bid to accommodate the Sunnis before the Oct. 15 referendum.
Shiite leaders had no comment on the ambassador's remarks. As constitution wrangling drew to a close last week, Shiite officials complained privately
that the Sunnis were stonewalling and that further negotiations were pointless.
Khaled al-Attiyah, a Shiite member of the constitution drafting committee, insisted Tuesday that "no changes are allowed" to the draft "except for
minor edits for the language."
This indicated that the Shiites and Kurds would be unlikely to compromise on their core demand for Iraq to be turned into a loose federation. Sunnis
fear this would eventually lead to the breakup of the nation which has been ruled as a centralized entity since it was established by British
occupiers in the 1920s.
Sunni Arabs form an estimated 20 percent of the population. They could still scuttle the charter because of a rule that states that if two-thirds of
the voters in any three provinces reject the draft, it would be defeated.
Even if the Sunnis lose the referendum, a bitter political battle at a time when the Sunni-led insurgency shows no sign of abating could plunge the
country into a full-scale sectarian conflict.
The Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq condemned attacks by foreign fighters against "our beloved people" and urged the
government to "stop criminals and terrorists from crossing into Iraq."
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
|
|
|
jonnynewbreed
Posting Freak
Posts: 1091
Registered: 4-4-2003
Location: Dartmouth, nova scotia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Quite nice actually.
|
|
good lord. I almot wish I lived in a time before internet and 24 hour news coverage. It's depresing how fucked up this world is.
|
|
|
hollymaconmovies
Member
Posts: 237
Registered: 6-23-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: Drops of Jupiter
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by jonnynewbreed
good lord. I almot wish I lived in a time before internet and 24 hour news coverage. It's depresing how fucked up this world is.
|
That was my first thought. I love the internet, I love instant access to information, and I love being informed. But god damn, the world just seems to
get worse everyday. It's just a constant reminder to me that I could have it a hell of a lot worse. High gas prices suck. So do a lot of other major
things in my life right now. But sometimes I feel so shallow and petty complaining about my problems when I look at the all of death and destruction
going on in the world around me.
|
|
|
clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
Posts: 12937
Registered: 9-19-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sick Of It All, Youth Of Today
|
|
THat is awful.
|
|
|
Kid Ugly
Senior Member
Posts: 738
Registered: 8-28-2005
Location: North Jersey
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by jonnynewbreed
good lord. I almot wish I lived in a time before internet and 24 hour news coverage. It's depresing how fucked up this world is.
|
It's enraging how fucked up this world is .
|
|
|
Discipline
* DRUNKEN MONKEY *
Posts: 11900
Registered: 9-8-2004
Location: Over here
Member Is Offline
Mood: The Alley Dukes
|
|
I'm so desensitized that I have to admit that I really don't give a shit. The only time shit really makes me sit up and take notice is when I
read/hear about beating their pets and shit like that. People dying is really more of an "oh well, shit happens" for me. Especially in the Middle
East cause I've been hearing about people dying/getting killed there for most of my life.
‘Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun. Straight through your heart.’
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/thorp/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
