500 dead in Iraq bridge stampede - Health Ministry

Reuters | August 31, 2005

[HAL9000]

BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Up to 500 people died when a crowd of Iraqi Shi'ites stampeded off a bridge over the River Tigris in Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraq's deputy Health Minister Jalil Al-Shumari told Reuters.

The crowd, on its way to the Kadhimiya mosque for an important religious ceremony, panicked as rumours spread that a suicide bomber was preparing to blow himself up.

Earlier at least seven people died in three separate mortar attacks on the crowd.

[johnnyBbad]

Well naturally. Why else would people fall off a bridge?

[johnnyBbad]

Latest number of dead is 841.

What a tragedy.

[johnnyBbad]

How, then, can the demise of some number of Iraqii shiites be viewed as problematic?

This comment is allowed to stand and then we wonder why the left has such a horrible view of us.

These Shiites were Saddam's victims! You remember - the people we liberated!

How sick that some people here can't decide whether they want to liberate the Iraqis or kill em all!

[Doofer]

The BBC just aired a report that the US army blocked one way off the bridge and probably knew that the bridge is damaged and wont take the weight....

It was clearly blaming the US...

I did not expected that from the BBC... they supposed to be allies !!!

With all due respect the BBC makes CNN look right wing........

[ohioWfan]

How, then, can the demise of some number of Iraqii shiites be viewed as problematic?

Perhaps this comment should NOT be allowed to stand.

I have often wondered why the "kill all Muslims" crowd is permitted to continue posting trash like this, since advocating violence and racism are both clearly against FR rules.

[McGavin999]

The Shiia in Iraq are diametrically opposed to Iranian mullahs. The most estimed cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Sistani believes that clerics must remain outside of politics. Najef (Iraq) and Qom (Iran) are the two differeing schools of thought in the Shiia religion. There is a centuries old fight between the two cities to be the basis for Shiia thought. Only a very small few Iraqi Shiia are influenced by Iran, the rest hate them with a passion. During the 8 year long war between Iraq and Iran the Iraqi Shiia were some of the fiercest fighters.

The Shiia are NOT a monolithic block. Don't confuse the good guys with the bad guys. Sistani has been holding the lid on a civil war since we got there. He has preached patience and tolerance. Just this week he put out an edict forbidding any politican from using a cleric's name in their campaigns or pretending they have a cleric's backing. He wants clerics OUT of politics.

Sadar is Shiia, but he is a minor cleric with no respect in the greater Shiia community. He never even completed his schooling and is looked down on my most Shiia as an unschooled child. He's trading on his father's reputation, and only has support among the criminals. Most of the poor have already figured out he's not what they thought.

[muawiyah]

Then we have entirely too many trolls and moles around here.

[muawiyah]

Sure, Iran is predominantly Shi'ite, but your ordinary guy in the street didn't vote the Ayatollahs and their friends into office.

What you have here is the problem so many Democrats have of viewing the Iranian people, and other Shi'ites, as hereditary enemies of some sort.

This all traces back to Jimmy Carter ~ he messed up big time. If there's ever to be a successful democracy among Moslems, it's gotta' start with a country dominated by Sufi (Turkey perhaps), or Shi'ites (Iran or Iraq). The Sunni are hopeless ~ all they understand is the sort of power that comes from the barrel of a gun.

[Alter Kaker]

How, then, can the demise of some number of Iraqii shiites be viewed as problematic?

The death toll is now over 800 according to the AP. 800 civilians -- worshippers -- are now dead, and you're cheering. I hope you suffer some great tragedy in your own personal life -- may someone you love die horribly.

[Alter Kaker]

Now I'm well aware that the sunnis are (apparently) the nexus of the insurgency within Iraq, but that doesn't mean that the shiites are our friends

Yes it does. Shiites and Americans share a common goal of seeing a stable democracy established in Iraq. Will they ally with America forever? Probably not. But against Al Qaeda and the insurgents? Absolutely. Moreover, even if the Shiites were diametrically opposed to mere the existence of the United States -- which they're not -- the idea of rooting for the tragic deaths of 841+ civilians -- men, women and children -- is morally reprehensible.

[grizzly84]

That's a staggering number, what's worse is the ease of this tactic. Yell suicide bomber and let fear and panic kill 800 people, I guess fear really is the true enemy.

[ohioWfan]

As per Fox report........there were mortars fired into the crowd before the stampede. And there WERE suicide bombers.

It was not a case of panic following a false alarm.

This is terrorism at its worst.

[Westlander]

You have to realize that Islamomaniacs are genetically related to Lemmings.

[bethtopaz]

Geez, al qaeda doesn't even need suicide bombers anymore. just hecklers. sick.

[ohioWfan]

There were mortars fired into the crowd and there were suicide bombers.

It wasn't just hecklers.

People were jumping into the river to avoid being killed, and the railing of the bridge collapsed causing others to fall and crush them.

Westlander, your comment about lemmings is completely inappropriate in view of this human tragedy caused by terrorism.

[samadams2000]

Eating their own are they? You embrace terror as a strategy..your society dies by terror. Very sad.

[notigar]

I don't think they are trolls and moles. I think they don't get a chance to express their beliefs that often, but now they do. Lots of pent-up stuff out there.

[neutrino]

Sistani has been holding the lid on a civil war since we got there. He has preached patience and tolerance. Just this week he put out an edict forbidding any politican from using a cleric's name in their campaigns or pretending they have a cleric's backing. He wants clerics OUT of politics.

That's interesting information. Thank you.

[Westlander]

Main Entry: lem·ming
Pronunciation: 'le-mi[ng]
Function: noun
Etymology: Norwegian
: any of various small short-tailed furry-footed rodents (as genera Lemmus and Dicrostonyx) of circumpolar distribution that are notable for the recurrent mass migrations of a European form (L. lemmus)

[bethtopaz]

Thanks! I heard on the news this morning that as the crowd was crossing the bridge over the Tigris River, someone shouted "a suicide bomber! a suicide bomber!" and people started jumping off the bridge and then the railing broke. I guess there really was one (or more). Guess it takes some time to sort out all the facts after a big tragedy like this.

I always wonder to myself - what do these terrorists have to offer the people of Iraq? What are they possibly thinking: The Iraqis will choose OUR RULE over FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY? They have no plan, they have no ideas - only death and destruction and terror. The choice is so clear. The Iraqis will fight for their own freedom. We must stand behind them.