Iraq stampede toll to hit 1,000-health official

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The death toll in a stampede on a
Baghdad bridge is expected to reach 1,000, a general manager at
Iraq’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

“An hour ago the death toll was 695 killed, but we expect
it to hit 1,000,” Dr Jaseb Latif Ali told Reuters.

Earlier, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters most
victims were women and children who “died by drowning or being
trampled” after panic swept a throng of thousands as they
headed to a religious ceremony, the official said.

By 2:15 pm (1015 GMT) the official death toll had risen to
647, with 301 injured, the official said.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabor and two top Shi’ite officials
blamed insurgents for the stampede, saying a terrorist spread a
rumor there was a suicide bomber in the crowd.

Tensions are high among Iraq’s rival religious and ethnic
communities ahead of a referendum on a new constitution for the
post-Saddam Hussein era.

Television images showed people clambering down from the
bridge to escape the surging crowd and piles of slippers left
behind by the crush of people.

Hysterical women knelt over corpses, wailing and praying.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and people carried bodies on
stretchers while others lined the river banks and crowded the
bridge.

Scores of bodies were covered with whatever was around —
foil, clothes or plastic sheeting.

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

SUICIDE BOMBER

A police source said swarming crowds had been heading to
the Kadhimiya mosque in the old district of north Baghdad when
someone shouted there was a suicide bomber among them.

“Hundreds of people started running and some threw
themselves off the bridge into the river,” the source said.

“Many elderly died immediately as a result of the stampede
but dozens drowned, many bodies are still in the river and
boats are working on picking them up.”

Earlier at least seven people were killed in three separate
mortar attacks on the crowd heading to the mosque to celebrate
the martyrdom of Musa Al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure
among Shi’ites.

Reuters Television showed a woman weeping over the body of
her dead child in al-Nu’man hospital. Dozens of bodies were
strewn across the floor.

The hospital was filled with the sounds of screaming and
wailing as disconsolate men and women searched for, and found,
loved ones.

Doctors and orderlies were treating many of the injured on
the floor or on trolleys in corridors. A child lay unconscious
on a stretcher, with an intravenous drip dangling from her arm.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari declared three days of
mourning and President Jalal Talabani said in a statement that
it was “a great tragedy which will leave a scar on our souls.”

Explosions were heard across Baghdad on Wednesday morning.

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

INSURGENCY UNABATED

Despite the draft constitution, there has been no easing in
an insurgency waged by Sunni Muslims, dominant under Saddam,
and international guerrillas inspired by Osama bin Laden.

The U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003 and has
been battling insurgents while Iraqis have tried to form a new
post-Saddam constitution and government.

The persistent fighting has helped to push down President
George W. Bush’s approval rating to a career low of 45 percent
on concerns over the war and soaring fuel prices, according to
an ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Tuesday.

The U.S. war in Iraq now costs more per month than the
average monthly cost of military operations in Vietnam in the
1960s and 1970s, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

The report, entitled “The Iraq Quagmire” from the Institute
for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus, both liberal,
anti-war organizations, put the cost of operations in Iraq at
$5.6 billion per month.

This breaks down to almost $186 million a day.

“By comparison, the average cost of U.S. operations in
Vietnam over the eight-year war was $5.1 billion per month,
adjusting for inflation,” it said.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny, Fares Mehdawi,
Lutfi Abu Oun, Aseel Kami)