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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Pilgrims crossed east from Al Kazimiyah (Al Kadimiyah) over A'imma (Al-Aaimmah) bridge.
Ibrahim Jaafari, the Prime Minister of Iraq, has declared that Iraq will hold three days of national mourning following a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad which left nearly a thousand people dead. The railings of a bridge over the River Tigris gave way under the weight of the crowd, and many people fell into the waters below.
CNN now reports the death toll as 965 dead and 465 injured.
The people were walking towards the Kadhimiya mosque, a Shi'ite shrine. They were celebrating the martyrdom of Muslim religious figure Musa Al-Kadhim.
Some sources say the rush happened after a rumor of the presence of a suicide bomber passed through the crowd of up to one million.
Earlier, three to six mortar rounds were fired into the crowd, killing as many as 16 - a US Apache gunship helicopter returned fire on the attackers.
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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
