Iraqis mourn 1,000 victims of stampede
Authorities define the tragedy "a terrorist act". A little known Sunni group linked to al Qaeda claims responsibility for mortar attack before the stampede.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Crowds gathered on Thursday for the funerals of some 1,000 Iraqis killed in a stampede during a religious festival, as the nation grieved over a tragedy which has overshadowed the daily bloodshed of war. Funeral tents were erected in the impoverished Baghdad Shi'ite suburb of Sadr City as relatives prepared to mourn their dead, before most of the bodies were due to begin their final journey to Najaf, the most holy Shi'ite city, for burial. Three days of official mourning will quieten a country inured to mass killing on its streets but shocked by the disaster.
At least 965 people were confirmed to have died on Wednesday when thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims rushed for safety onto a bridge across the Tigris in Baghdad, only to die in the river below or crushed on the roadway. The final toll, one senior official said, was likely to be more than 1,000 as bodies were counted scattered across hospitals, makeshift morgues and family homes across the city.
Iraq authorities said the tragedy - which risks inflaming sectarian tensions in the country - was a "terrorist" act by toppled ruler Saddam Hussein's loyalists and al-Qaida frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Yesterday a little known Sunni group said it was behind the mortar attacks that killed at least seven people in Iraq, before the stampede. "The Mujahideen (holy fighters) this morning attacked ... the nest of rejectionist (Shi'ite) apostates in the Kadhimiya area with mortars and Katyusha (rockets)," Jaysh al-Taefa al-Mansura (Army of the Victorious Sect) said in an Internet statement. The statement was posted on a Web site that often carries postings from al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents. After the mortar attack, whether by malicious design or simple panic, a warning from within the crowd of a suicide bomber among them sparked a rush for safety that proved illusory.
Some witnesses blamed poor organisation for the death toll. Whatever sparked the rush for safety, the fear that a bomber might be on the loose was well grounded after previous attacks on Shi'ite religious events in the past two years.
Health Minister Abdul Mutalib Mohammad Ali had blamed the interior and defence ministers for the crush on Wednesday. Mr Jaafari said the ministers had done everything possible to ensure the pilgrims' security and criticised Mr Ali for making his remarks in public. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has dismissed calls for government ministers to resign.
.png)
24/07/2017 10:05
27/11/2017 11:32
