Hundreds killed in stampede near Baghdad mosque

[vniow]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 800 Iraqi Shi'ites died in a stampede over a Baghdad bridge provoked by rumours of a suicide bomber on Wednesday, and an official said the death toll was expected to reach 1,000.

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

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

"Many elderly died immediately ... but dozens drowned, many bodies are still in the river and boats are working on picking them up."

:(

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&summit=&storyid=2005-08-31T192035Z_01_DIT131351_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAQ-DC.XML

[highres]

Wow that is pretty tragic, what a disaster...The rumor of a suicide bomber was way more effective in terms of causing terror and death than an actual bomb would have been. People throwing themselves off the bridge? Mostly women and children? What a horrible image... :(

[joepunk]

What an awful, tragic event :( I wonder if it was planed or if someone really did think that there was a bomber.

[jelloshotsrule]

Wow that is pretty tragic, what a disaster...The rumor of a suicide bomber was way more effective in terms of causing terror and death than an actual bomb would have been. People throwing themselves off the bridge? Mostly women and children? What a horrible image... :(

could this be used as a tactic now i wonder? that is, if the insurgents or whoever say "well, i don't even have to kill myself to hurt people, i can just start rumors of a bomber"... hmm. sad day for sure. i doubt it will get much coverage, despite being nearly 1/3 of sept 11th fatalities already

[Lyle]

i doubt it will get much coverage, despite being nearly 1/3 of sept 11th fatalities alreadyThe cable news networks were covering it this morning while I was watching, but I have the feeling that U.S. news will continue to be dominated by coverage of the aftermath of Katrina.

[highres]

could this be used as a tactic now i wonder? that is, if the insurgents or whoever say "well, i don't even have to kill myself to hurt people, i can just start rumors of a bomber"... hmm. sad day for sure. i doubt it will get much coverage, despite being nearly 1/3 of sept 11th fatalities already

This certainly could set a new precedent, like you said jello "people just starting a rumor of a bomber" without the suicide part of the equation.

For instance if this were started in high-rise skyscraper, all kinds of terrible things could happen, doesn't need to be next to a bridge or river, this could have occurred in a football stadium or crowded venue anywhere suicide atttacks have occurred and where people are afraid of them happening.

I can't recall from recent memory anything like this happening, maybe someone else on the forums may know of an incident where a panic or rumor killed so many people without the actual attack taking place?

[zimv20]

terrorism isn't just violence, it's the fear that it causes because of the threat of more.

AQ et. al. can quite easily cause this country to fearspend its way into bankruptcy. e.g. leave a backpack on a subway platform in chicago and watch the city take a $1 million hit in emergency response and lost productivity.

the only way we can hope to defeat terrorism is to remove its root causes; poking the bear only adds to the entropy, and we can't beat entropy.

[highres]

This disaster truly emphasizes the "terror" in terrorism. Mass hysteria or panic can have far reaching consequences, like vniow stated how we have "fear spent" our way into bankruptcy, etc. Many people just react without thinking and the damage that that causes can be catastrophic.

[Lacero]

Can we indirectly blame Bush for this?

[zimv20]

like vniow stated how we have "fear spent" our way into bankruptcy
oi! i coined that term!

[Xtremehkr]

As tragic an event as this is, the apathetical way in which people have responded is even more tragic.

Personally I am suffering from shock fatigue, but if this were Berlin, London, or Sydney, I get the feeling that there would be a lot more of a response.

It is an indicator of the level of fear that still exists in Iraq though. Maybe a level of fear that continues to grow, who knows, my government tells me that I should be content with the fact that schools are being built.

Whether people feel safe enough to send their kids to American built school and what they will be taught there is just stuff I shouldn't bother myself with.

Well, maybe not if I weren't after all moved by the fact that nearly a thousand people died today in a country that we have supposedly saved. Guess I was wrong.

[mactastic]

Holy crap, that's horrible! :(

[Lyle]

Can we indirectly blame Bush for this?Sorry; due to bad timing, I think most liberal energy is being focused on figuring out how to blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina.

[jelloshotsrule]

Sorry; due to bad timing, I think most liberal energy is being focused on figuring out how to blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina.

with conservative energy being focused on figuring out how to blame gays for it.

[mactastic]

Sorry; due to bad timing, I think most liberal energy is being focused on figuring out how to blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina.
Major Hurricane Determined To Strike US. ;)

[mac-er]

Sorry; due to bad timing, I think most liberal energy is being focused on figuring out how to blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina.

No one is trying to blame him for it.

We are trying to hold him responsbile for his multitude of lies. The government is not ready for any large scale diaster.

This is chaos.

I wish he'd just stop going on vacation...everytime he does...something bad happens. :)