- Big thanks to the JWN reader who sent in a translation of the Az-Zaman article I mentioned this morning. Here it is, preceded by my own translation of the (lengthy) headline.
Headline: One thousand martyrs in an Iraqi catastrophe on the al-Aema bridge [bridge of the Imams]; Ja’fari announces three days of mourning; the Health
Minister calls on the ministers of the Interior and Defense to resign; Washington is confident the crisis can be overcome; the people of al-Aazhamiyeh rush to the aid of the wounded from the incident; and Iraqis accuse the government of a lack of readiness regarding security and services.
Dateline: Baghdad, Abdel-Hussein Ghazal and Zaner Mazloom Abbas– AFP– Reuters
Text:
Iraq was inflicted yesterday with the catastrophic killing of one thousand Iraqis most of whom were women and children from the visitorsof the Grave of Imam Moussa Ibn Jaafar El-Kadhim (peace be upon him) in Baghdad, where the stampede over the bridge of the Imams resulted in the suffocation or drowning of hundreds after the the sides of the bridge collapsed and the victims collided with the concrete obstacles which were placed for security reasons two years ago. Eyewitnesses relate that rumors about a booby-trapped car have caused fear amongst the people so a stampede resulted and that’s when the catastrophe occurred. The losses increased because of the lack of emergency services and the shooting in the air by police increased the fear and confusion amongst the crowd…
Eyewitnesses added that the population of Al-Aadhamyah [sunni-neighbourhood] on the opposite side of the bridge hurried to rescue the injured visitors using their personal cars and took them to the hospitals.
Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime minister has announced three days of mourning. The Iraqis have expressed a unified national show of sadness and grief for the victims. They also expressed national unity and condemnation of sectarianism. The local group of religious scholars in Fallujah called for a blood drive to help save the injured. Sheikh Abdul-Hameed El-Jadu, the imam of El-Forkan mosque, said “What happened hurts all Iraqis and not just Shiites.”
The Minister of Health Abd-Ul-Muttalib Mohammed Ali called yesterday onboth minsters of defense Saadoon Addaylame and minster of interior Baker Soulagh to claim responsibility for the today’s incident which led to the martyrdum of around one thousand on the bridge of El-Aemmah and he called on them to resign. In Washington, the US government expressed its confidence that Al-Jaafari’s government will be able to deal with the crisis. The Iraqi health minister said in a press conference in Baghdad: “I put the responsibility on my colleagues in the [ministry of ] Interior and the [ministry of] defense for what happened today.”
He added “If we wanted to compare what happened today to what happened in London which has moved the conscience of humanity and the globe and even the other galaxies, then it [the London bombings] will not reach the tenth of what happened today.” The minister continued: “Therefore, I ask my colleagues in the [ministry of ] Interior and the [ministry of] defense to take full responsibility or resign.” He also said “There should have been a security zone of 30 kilometers on the borders of the path of the visitors.” He stressed “We are a government of responsibility and not a purely administrative government . We are a government that took responsibility for the situation in spite of its difficulty and everyone has to be responsible and not act as just an administrator.” The minister said that “the total number of dead because of falling off the Al-Aemmah bridge has reached 635 persons.” The number has later increased to one thousand dead along with hundreds injured.
The minister also explained what happened on the Al-Aemmah bridge and said “Some of the ill-wishers from the visitors shouted that booby-trapped [car] exists on top of the bridge. This resulted in fear, pushing and shoving amongst the visitors. Thus some of them were killed and others were injured.” He added that ” I say this because the general inspector of the [health] ministry was there [on the bridge].” The minster also noted that “some severe cases of suffocation occurred and those persons did not arrive to the hospitals in time.”
The minister of interior Baker Solagh Jabr said that a terrorist was behind the spread of a rumor that another suicide bomber will blow himself up in the middle of the Shiite crowd which caused the stampede on the bridge in Baghdad.
The doctors are treating a lot of the injured on the ground or on sheets on the street. One young girl was lying unconscious a sheet while the bags of medicinal fluids was hanging from her arm. The president Jalal Talabani said in a statement that this is a huge catastrophe and it will have a lasting effect on the souls of all Iraqis. He added that he prays to Allah (God) to heal the injured and show mercy to the martyrs.
On Wednesday, a lot of explosions were heard in different locations in Baghdad. A reporter for Reuters said that he heard about six loud Mortar explosions next to Baghdad international airport, but the American army said that they had no information about such an attack there. In spite of the presentation of the draft of the constitution there is no sign that the security situation is improving.
The minister of defense said that the incident on the bridge in Baghdad was not connected to sectarian tensions in the country. Saahoun Addaylame said in a live televised speech that what happened has no connection to sectarian tensions and that the seven people killed by a Mortar attack which tool place this morning before the stampede were the only killed by terrorists.
What a tragedy.
I don’t know what else to say.