posted on August 31, 2005 10:42:11 AM new
Linda loves to use one trivial piece of information to make Iraq look like a walk in the park. The reality is that it is far from that, and it is only getting worse.
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719 Dead, 383 Hurt in Iraq Bridge Stampede
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a suicide bomber was at large.
Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Sabah Ali, a senior official in the Health Ministry, said 719 were killed and 383 injured.
Tensions already had risen among the Shiite marchers because of a mortar attack two hours earlier near the shrine where they were heading. Then the crowd was slowed by barriers about a quarter of the way across the Two Imams Bridge, Interior Minister Bayn Jabr said on state-run TV.
"Pushing started when a rumor was spread by a terrorist who claimed that there was a person with an explosive belt, which caused panic and the pushing started," Jabr said. "Some fell from the bridge, others fell on the barricades" and were trampled to death.
The barriers are meant to keep Sunni and Shiite extremists out of each other's neighborhoods at opposite ends of the bridge.
The two-lane, 300-yard-long bridge was littered with abandoned hundreds of sandals lost in the pushing and panic. Children who had plunged 30 feet off the bridge floundered in the muddy waters, trying to reach dry land.
Survivors were rushed in ambulances and private cars to hospitals. Thousands raced to both banks of the river to search for survivors, and bare-chested men jumped in to try to recover bodies.
Scores of bodies covered with white sheets lay on the sidewalk outside one hospital whose morgue was jammed. Many were children, old men and black-gowned women.
Sobbing relatives wandered about, lifting sheets in search of their kin. When they found them, they would shriek in grief, pound their chests or collapse.
Casualty figures from official sources varied because survivors were taken to several hospitals, and officials were scrambling to establish accurate tallies.
Hamid Jassim, a doctor who was on the scene when panic erupted, said most of the dead were suffocated or trampled. "Many of the panicked people who jumped into the Tigris trying to save themselves survived with broken bones. Others drowned because they did not know how to swim," he told The Associated Press.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiites had been marching across the bridge, which links a Sunni district to Kazimiyah, a Shiite neighborhood which contains the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, a 9th century Shiite saint.
TV reports said about 1 million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the shrine, about a mile from the bridge, for the annual commemoration of the saint's death.
"We were on the bridge. It was so crowded. Thousands of people were surrounding me," said survivor Fadhel Ali, 28, barefoot and soaked. "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."
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared three days of mourning.
Shiite processions, which can draw huge crowds, are often targeted by Sunni extremists seeking to trigger sectarian war. Mortar shells had exploded near the shrine compound about two hours before the bridge disaster, killing at least seven people. U.S. Apache helicopters fired at the attackers.
In March 2004, suicide attackers struck at two shrines, killing at least 181 people.
The head of the country's major Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, said it was the latest on "the list of ongoing Iraqi tragedies."
"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, Harith al-Dhari, told Al-Jazeera TV.
Elsewhere, two U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded in separate incidents in central Iraq, the military said. One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday in the city of Iskandariyah in central Iraq. Another soldier was killed and three wounded when a bomb exploded Wednesday next to their patrol near the town of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Witnesses said the town of Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, was quiet and virtually deserted Wednesday after a day of U.S. airstrikes and heavy fighting between the pro-government Bumahl tribe and the pro-insurgent Karabilah tribe. Iraqi officials said 45 people died, most in the tribal clashes, during which hundreds fled their homes for refuge in the countryside.
The border region is considered a prime infiltration route for smugglers and foreign militants trying to reach central and western Iraq.
This week's violence came amid new twists in the road to a constitution for post- Saddam Hussein Iraq. On Tuesday, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad raised the possibility of further changes to the draft completed by the dominant Kurdish and Shiite Arab bloc but vehemently opposed by Arab Sunnis who form the core of the armed insurgency.
Khalilzad said he believed "a final, final draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet" — a strong hint to Shiites and Kurds that Washington wants another bid to accommodate the Sunnis before the charter goes to a referendum Oct. 15.
Khaled al-Attiyah, a Shiite on the constitution drafting committee, responded that "no changes are allowed ... except for minor edits for the language."
This indicated that the Shiites and Kurds were unlikely to compromise on their core demand that Iraq become a loose federation. Sunnis fear this would eventually lead to the breakup of the nation.
Sunni Arabs are about 20 percent of the population. They could still scuttle the charter because of a rule stating that if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject it, it would be defeated.
Even if the Sunnis lose the referendum, a bitter political battle at a time when the Sunni-led insurgency shows no sign of abating could plunge the country into a full-scale sectarian conflict.
The Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq condemned attacks by foreign fighters against "our beloved people" and urged the government to "stop criminals and terrorists from crossing into Iraq."
posted on August 31, 2005 11:05:48 AM new
Where did Rusty lie about you LindaredKKK?
Nowhere.
Have you packed yet for your vacation in that sunny paradise Iraq?
WHY NOT?
posted on August 31, 2005 04:05:05 PM new
Linda again on her hypocritical "truth" crusade. LOL. It happens whenever there is some tragedy that takes the focus away from the corruption of the Bush Administration.
I'm pretty anxious to see GW get all dolled up for his propaganda machine to spin the tragedy down south.
posted on August 31, 2005 04:14:20 PM new
rusty - you can do all the lying you want to about this President....but when you lie about me...I will point it out to all.
Get used to it....or stop doing it.
You don't HAVE to make every post you post about me.
You're becoming obsessed with me. People are going to start wondering.
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
posted on August 31, 2005 04:47:08 PM new
LOL...more delusions of grandeur from old peepa.
You don't speak for all the posters here....get real....come back to reality.
And who in their right mind would find it odd that the Bush haters don't agree with me?
And it really gets your/their panties/briefs all twisted up when I remind you and them that my guy WON re-election.
I don't suppose you'd like to give us all a list of all our members of Congress [the House and the Senate] who are calling for withdrawing our troops BEFORE the Iraqi people can protect themselves, now would you? No anti-Bush poster has answered that question yet.
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"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Aug 31, 2005 04:50 PM ]
posted on September 1, 2005 05:37:09 AM new
"And it really gets your/their panties/briefs all twisted up when I remind you and them that my guy WON re-election"
Linda...you really know how to piss a candy-ass off
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Golfer:Stop checking your watch all the time,its too much of a distraction.
Caddy:Its not a watch, its a compass
posted on September 1, 2005 05:11:22 PM new
"And it really gets your/their panties/briefs all twisted up when I remind you and them that my guy WON re-election."
The point is not whether you win an election, but rather of what you do when you are in office. America can see where this president (aka: Coke Head Monkey) has led us and it is beginning to show as the world around his feet crumble part and he is bringing the rest of America with him.
His popularity is already in the toilet, and people across the country, whether Republican or Democrat can see it with their own eyes. A President who has more time to strum a guitar than get his butt in gear proves exactly how much he really cares about America and the people who live here. I guarantee you that any other President in history would have had their butts back in DC before the Hurricane hit, making all of the necessary preparations so that this disaster wouldn't get worse after the storm hit. Instead he was busy working on his tan, singing a song, having a good old time, rather than dealing with the disaster at hand. I cannot fathom the idea of any president taking a 30 day vacation while we were at war. It is a disgrace to those who serve knowing that their leader is off having fun on extended vacations, making them do all the work, putting their lives on the line. A leader is a person who supports his people, and this moron has done none of that. It is a disgrace for him to even suggest he can relate to the soldiers or those who are in the aftermath.
posted on September 1, 2005 06:25:00 PM new
Where's the violation? Seems to me there is a lot of people here using more than one ID. YOU CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE ID.
BTW, good and accurate post, shagmidmod. I was more than willing to give Bush a chance. But, he blew it right off the bat. Every, and I mean EVERY, republican that I know that voted for him is now sorry they did. My conscious is clear. I didn't vote for him. He will go down in history as this country's worse president.
posted on September 1, 2005 06:35:52 PM new
Yes you can have more than one id but when you post with all your id's in the same thread to back yourself up then it's not only underhanded it's also disruptive and that is where the violation comes in. Not everyone knows all of Mr. gumbo's id's.
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My karma just ran over your dogma.
