Posted on 08/31/2005 1:52:08 AM PDT by HAL9000
Some 637 died in Iraq in a drowning and violences
BAGHDAD - Some 637 people perished and 238 others were wounded Wednesday in a drowning in the Tiger, of violences and criminal poisonings in full mourning Shiite, according to a new assessment of a source of safety.
These victims are in five large hospitals of the capital, specified this source, revising with the rise a preceding assessment, making state from at least 500 died, provided by a high person in charge for the ministry for Health.
Thanks. "Mortar rounds had been fired into the crowd earlier"
Must be a Terrorist attack, not just a bomb scare.
That translation is all screwed up ! violence and criminal pisonings ?
They stampeded across a bridge when some yelled that a homicide bomber was in the crowd !
Hundreds Killed In Human Stampede In Baghdad
POSTED: 4:17 am CDT August 31, 2005
UPDATED: 4:28 am CDT August 31, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Police say a human stampede among pilgrims heading for a Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad killed more than 300 people Wednesday.
The deaths occurred when a railing on a bridge across the Tigris River collapsed. One officer said some of the pilgrims fell off the bridge and drowned in the river.
Brig. Gen. Khalid Hassan said 308 people had died in the crush or were drowned after falling off the al-Aima Bridge.
CNN reported that at least 635 people were killed, 237 were injured.
Hassan, who commands the police in the capital's Azamiyah district, said the accident occurred due to the immense crowd that tried to cross the bridge.
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.
Earlier, several mortar and rocket rounds hit the area around the shrine, killing seven people and injuring at least 40. A U.S. military statement said Apache helicopters fired on the attackers after observing the rocket launches, which occurred about two hours before the bridge accident.
This just doesn't seem right to me. These poor Iraquis should be so used to suicide bombers by now that a mere rumor of one shouldn't cause such a lemming like reaction.
What a horrible world had been wrought by the islamists that a mere rumor can cause a mindless stampede that kills 1/4 the number of people that they had to hijack airliners and fly them into skyscrapers to achieve the same results just about four years ago.
Kyodo News - "Police and hospital sources reportedly said that most of fatalities were from drowning, though some were crushed and around 50 people died inexplicably from food poisoning."
This is nuts!
more horror.. ping
50 people died inexplicably from food poisoning."
They got a mcdonalds on the bridge ?
LOL
Too bad FR has it's own share of dummies.
signs from above....odd things just seem to happen to those folk.....
"It will definitely complicate the mission of our troops. It's nothing to grin about."
Bottom line!
50 people died inexplicably from food poisoning? With the mortars as well It looks like this was some kind of multi-pronged attack by the Sunnis. It "succeeded" better than they could have hoped for these Children of the Devil.
Ditto that... someone will probably try to blame the troops...
I think the appropriate response is to offer prayers for the dead and their families... I get no joy out of the death of anyone... (honestly I don't even enjoy the death of terrorists, though its definitely better for everyone if they're dead)...
That would be the ENEMY message, anything to get Americans killed.
You sure you want to continue in that vein?
This is why you don't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater.
"falsely yell fire".
I've been searching and so far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.. though it is early, but I'm wondering if this was carried out by the usual suspects, eg. Zarqawi et al.. or could it have come directly from some 'unknown' Sunni group..
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