Baghdad's latest tragedy seems certain to exacerbate an already volatile situation Yesterday, and amidst heightened divisions between Iraqi Sunnis and Shias over the constitution approved by parliament last Sunday, Baghdad was struck by a human tragedy of unprecedented scale, claiming the lives of some thousand people, while causing serious injuries to hundreds more -- the highest casualty cost in a single incident since the fall of the capital in April 2003. The disaster occurred on Wednesday 31 August, the last day the majority of Iraqis can register to vote in the 15 October referendum on the contested constitution, and also the day marking the death of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim, the seventh Shia Imam, who died in Baghdad in 799 -- an event commemorated annually by hundreds of thousands of Shia who flock to the Kadhimiya Mosque on the shores of the Tigris in Baghdad where the Imam is buried. As throngs of Shia pilgrims were marching across the Aima Bridge (Imams bridge), rumour spread that suicide bombers were in the crowd causing panic resulting in hundreds dying in a stampede. "Most victims were women and children who died by drowning or being trampled," Reuters reported. "We have lost count, we have hundreds and hundreds of dead and injured," a Ministry of Health official told Reuters. "We can't tell how many are dead. Many bodies are still in the river." During the crush, the bridge's iron railings gave way and hundreds of people fell into the water. Apparently the atmosphere among the Shia pilgrims was already charged as earlier mortar rounds had been fired into the crowd and close to the Kadhimiya Mosque, killing 16 and injuring 36 others. This gave substance to the rumours, especially that Shia pilgrims have been previously targeted in Kadhimiya, when suicide bombers killed around 180 people in March 2004, during a twin attack on Karbala and Kadhimiya. Thousands rushed to the banks of the Tigris to search for survivors, the BBC reported, and "young men stripped off their shirts and waded into the muddy water to retrieve bodies floating downstream." As the number of dead and injured continued to rise, Dr Jaseb Latif Ali, a top official at Iraq's Ministry of Health told Reuters late Wednesday afternoon that "An hour ago the death toll was 695, but we expect it to hit 1,000 soon." Top Shia clerics were quick to accuse insurgents and Saddam loyalists of deliberately causing the stampede. Amar Al-Hakim, a leader in the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and son of SCIRI leader Abdel-Aziz Al-Hakim told Reuters "We hold the terrorists, Saddamists and radical extremists responsible for what happened." A less emphatic, though equally condemning note came from Abdul-Hadi Al-Daraji, spokesman for Moqtada Al-Sadr, the fiery cleric often opposed to the SCIRI. Daraji said "Insurgents had spread rumours there was a suicide bomber in the crowd to cause panic." Meanwhile, Iraq's Minister of Interior Bayan Jabr and Minister of Defence Sadoun Duliami held a joint press conference early Wednesday evening briefing journalists on the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Jabr was quoted as blaming Saddam loyalists and insurgents for the tragedy, saying that a number of terrorists in possession of explosions were arrested in different areas of and near Baghdad and that some of those terrorists were heading to Kadhimiya; while Duliami denied that the incident was intended to foment sectarian tensions. He said pedestrians should not have been allowed on the Aima bridge in the first place, and that the bridge was opened to the public upon strong popular demand from Shia pilgrims who wanted to march to the shrine of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim. It remains to be seen whether the tragedy will lead to an open sectarian clash or not, but one thing is certain: the Aima Bridge tragedy is likely to further pollute the atmosphere between Iraq's Shias and Sunnis, already divided over a number of issues enshrined in the contested constitution, including forming semi- autonomous regions, the terminology used to eradicate the influence of the Baath Party, and structures of authority between the presidency, parliament and the government. The Imams bridge which links or separates the predominantly Sunni district Al-Adhamiya -- named after the Imam Al-Adham Abu Hanifah Al-Noman (699-765), one of the four Imams of the Sunni jurisprudence -- with the predominantly Shia district of Kadhimiya, has always been a symbol of unity between Iraq's two Muslim sects. On the day Baghdad fell to the American forces, calls from the Abu Hanifah Mosque in Adhamiya, where Saddam was said to be sheltering, urged the Shia of Iraq to unite with their Sunni brethren in fighting the aggressors and praised them for being the defenders of the faith. Two and a half years after the US occupation, the Shia and Sunnis are divided as never before. It would indeed take a miracle to unite them again, but then Iraqis are famous for miracles and the three days of national mourning announced by the state might mark a beginning.
