'Terrorist' triggered stampede

2005-08-31 15:47

Baghdad - Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh said a "terrorist" triggered Wednesday's stampede that caused about 650 deaths near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad where a million pilgrims had gathered.

"There was a huge crowd on the bridge and what happened was that one terrorist spread a rumour that led to the stampede," Solagh told state-owned Iraqia television.

"The terrorist pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives and that led to the panic," Solagh said.

Iraq's national security adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie accused toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's loyalists and insurgents close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, of deliberately setting off rumours on the bridge.

"It was Saddamists and Zarqawists who spread ruours on the bridge and that is why people panicked," he told the television.

Solagh however dismissed accusations by Health Minister Abdul Mubalib Mohammed Ali that his opposite numbers at the interior and defence ministries were responsible for the tragedy.

"The area where the tragedy occured does not come under the jursidiction of interior ministry forces but under the defence ministry," Solagh said.

He said the defence ministry had taken all possible steps to ensure the tragedy was not further compounded by any terrorist attacks. He also blamed the huge number of pilgrims that were cramped in the small neighbourhood.

"The number of people there were just too much," he added.

Ali had demanded the resignation of the ministers of interior and defence, holding them responsible for the stampede.

"I hold my colleagues in the ministries of interior and defence responsible for what happened today," Ali said. "I call upon my colleagues in the interior and defence to either bear full responsibility or resign."

Nearly one million Shiite pilgrims have gathered at the shrine of Kadhimiyah to commemorate the death anniversary of seventh Imman Mussa Kazim when the tragedy occured.

Around 650 people were killed in a stampede after rebel mortar attacks near the shrine.

- AFP