Iraq's Deadliest Day Needed No Bombs

by Katherine Stapp

(IPS) -- The death toll from a stampede of Iraqi Shiite pilgrims continued to climb Wednesday, with security officials saying nearly 1000 people perished and 323 were injured when rumors of a suicide bombing sparked chaos on a Baghdad bridge.

Most were trampled or fell into the Tigris River, as panic spread through the crowd of thousands following an attack by insurgents on a nearby mosque.

"There was a huge crowd on the bridge and what happened was that one terrorist spread a rumor that led to the stampede," Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh said on state-owned Iraqia television. "The terrorist pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives... and that led to the panic."

According to hospital staff, many of the victims of the deadliest incident in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 were women and children. Dr. Jaseb Latif Ali, a general manager at Iraq's Health Ministry, said he expected the death toll to hit 1,000, once all the bodies are recovered from the muddy river.

Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie blamed "Saddamists and Zarqawists" for the tragedy, referring to the followers of former President Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a 37-year-old Jordanian radical believed to be behind a string of suicide bombings, kidnappings and executions of foreigners in Iraq.

The victims were among an estimated 1 million pilgrims who had massed in the Khadimiya district for an annual ceremony commemorating the death of Musa al-Khadhim, a revered Shiite imam who died 12 centuries ago.

"We were on the bridge. It was so crowded. Thousands of people were surrounding me," one survivor, Fadhel Ali, 28, told reporters. "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."

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has declared a three-day mourning period and appeared on television to appeal for national unity.

Analysts warn that the incident could ratchet up tensions just days after Sunnis rejected the country's draft constitution, which goes to a national referendum Oct. 15.

"With an absolutely pivotal moment in Iraq, with the constitution just agreed upon and a fierce debate taking place amongst Sunnis, they see it as a pro-Shia document. Inevitably there will be more to it than a freak accident," Richard Beeston, a correspondent with the Times of London, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In a message posted on an Islamist Web site, a Sunni group called the Jaysh al-Taefa al-Mansura claimed responsibility for Wednesday's mortar attack on a large Shiite crowd gathered at the Kadhimiya mosque. Sixteen people died and dozens of others injured.

U.S. Apache helicopters fired on the attackers, a U.S. statement said. The stampede would occur barely two hours later.

Meanwhile, Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's ambassador to Iraq, said Tuesday that 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.

Khalilzad spoke alongside Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, who has urged Sunnis to reject the constitution in the referendum, indicating that Washington is still hoping to gain Sunni endorsement before Oct. 15.

One of the points of contention is that the draft identifies Iraq as an Islamic but not Arab country -- a concession to the non-Arab Kurds. Many Sunnis felt the change threatens the nation's ties to the Arab world and lumps Iraqis together with non-Arab, Shiite-dominated Iran.

Others worry that the constitutional language regarding Islam and Islamic law may worsen the plight of religious minorities, particularly Christians, and women, despite repeated pledges by the Bush administration that women's and minority rights were among Washington's highest priorities in Iraq.

Sunni Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Iraq's 25 million people but hold overwhelming majorities in two western provinces and a smaller majority in a third, giving them the power to defeat the charter in the October referendum.