[stocksthatgoup]

bttt

[Americanwolf]

the terrorists get them one way or another

just.....damn

[Cruz]

ping

[ChristianDefender]

The bridge must have been overloaded...

Felt sad for them but as of now America has its own problem to focus on..Katrina!... "Ahmed, just mind your own business for now..."

[HAL9000]

BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Up to 500 people died when a crowd of Iraqi Shi'ites stampeded off a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad on Wednesday, fleeing rumours of a suicide bombing threat, Iraq's deputy health minister said.

"So far we have 500 dead," Jalil Al-Shumari, the deputy minister, 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.

One hospital said it had received at least 100 bodies by 12:30 (0830 GMT). The hospital source said bodies were being sent to two other nearby hospitals as well.

A crowd of several thousand had been marching through the old Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad to a major Shi'ite religious ceremony.

The streets leading to the mosque are narrow, making it almost impossible for rescue workers to reach the dead and injured in the packed throng, and raising the possibility that the death toll could rise further, witnesses said.

Tensions have been running high between the main religious and ethnic communities ahead of a referendum on a divisive new constitution for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

The Kadhimiya mosque is a major Shi'ite shrine in an old district of north Baghdad.

The crowd was celebrating the martyrdom of Musa Al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure among Shi'ites.

Explosions were heard across Baghdad on Wednesday morning.

A Reuters correspondent reported hearing six mortar rounds exploding near the international airport, although the U.S. military had no information of any attacks there.

Parliament completed work on the draft text of the constitution on Sunday, but it must be approved by a popular mandate before Oct. 15 to come into force.

[SeaBiscuit]

Horrible... Terrible..

and in more ways than one.. I'm sure the rats and lsm will be spinning this big time..

[ajolympian2004]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167906,00.html

[Jackknife]

Wow! 500 dead from a human stampede? Astounding........

[Pro-Bush]

The Sunni's have been vindicated!

[M. Espinola]

This is madness!

[guitarnick40]

This couldn't have been Cindy's freedom fighters could it?:->

[HAL9000]

AFP via Babelfish translation -

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.

[SeaBiscuit]

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.

[SeaBiscuit]

more horror.. ping

[unread]

signs from above....odd things just seem to happen to those folk.....

[BallyBill]

DU seems to think it was an air strike

That would be the ENEMY message, anything to get Americans killed.

[newzjunkey]

This is why you don't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater.

[leadpenny]

Over 600 Iraqis Killed in Bridge Stampede

[SeaBiscuit]

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..

[SeaBiscuit]

Bridge Stampede in Iraq Leaves 650 Dead By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq — About 650 people _ many of them women and children _ were killed in a stampede Wednesday when panic engulfed a Shiite religious procession after rumors spread that a suicide bomber occupied the bridge they were crossing, officials said. Scores jumped or were pushed to their deaths into the Tigris River, while others were crushed in the crowd in what appeared to be the single biggest loss of life in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Tensions already had been running high in the procession in Baghdad's heavily Shiite Kazamiyah 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. One survivor said panic ensued when a rumor spread that a suicide bomber was in the crowd. Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col Adnan Abdul-Rahman said 648 were killed and 322 injured. Most of the dead were women and children, he said. Survivors were rushed in ambulances and private cars to several hospitals and officials were scrambling to compile an accurate figure. After the collapse, bare-chested men swam through the muddy river looking for bodies. "We were on the bridge. It was so crowded. Thousands of people were surrounding me," said survivor Fadhel Ali, 28, barefoot and soaking wet after swimming in the river. "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. Earlier reports suggested that the bridge's railing collapsed, but television footage showed the green, waist-high railing undamaged. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites were 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. About two hours earlier, mortar shells exploded in the shrine compound, killing at least seven people. U.S. Apache helicopters fired at the attackers. After the bridge disaster, thousands of people rushed to both banks of the river searching for survivors. 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. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared a three-day mourning period. 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 Sholars, told Al-Jazeera television that the disaster Wednesday 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," the cleric, Haith al-Dhari, said. I don't know how reliable this is but it seems this writer wants to focus on the Sunni as the possible culprits. The bold text is mine, as this refutes all earlier reports about the bridge railing collapsing.