The Al-Aimmah Bridge disaster (Arabic: كارثة جسر الائمة, lit. 'Bridge of the Imams disaster') occurred on August 31, 2005 when 965 people died following a panic, and subsequent crowd crush, on the Al-Aaimmah Bridge, which crosses the Tigris river in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The incident was "the single biggest loss of Iraqi life since the US-led invasion in 2003".
Incident
At the time of the disaster, around one million pilgrims had gathered around or were marching toward Al Kadhimiya Mosque, the shrine of the Shi'ite Imam Musa al-Kazim. Tensions had been high within the crowd. Earlier in the day, seven people had been killed and dozens more wounded in a mortar attack upon the assembled crowd for which an Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group claimed responsibility. Near the shrine, rumors of an imminent suicide bomb attack broke out, panicking many pilgrims. Interior Minister Bayan Baqir Solagh said that one person "pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives...and that led to the panic". The man was presumed to be wearing a suicide explosive belt on the bridge.
The panicked crowd flocked to the bridge, which had been closed. Somehow, the gate at their end of the bridge opened, and the pilgrims rushed through. Some people fell onto the concrete base and died instantly. The ensuing crush of people caused many to suffocate. The pressure of the crowd caused the bridge's iron railings to give way, dropping hundreds of people 9 m (30 feet) into the Tigris river. There was nowhere on the bridge for the people to go, as the other end of the bridge remained closed, and was impossible to open anyway, as it opened inward.
Attempts to rescue people
People dived in from both ends of the bridge trying to help those drowning in the river. On the Sunni side, calls went out from the loudspeakers of local mosques to help those in trouble. A Sunni Arab teenager, Othman Ali Abdul-Hafez (Arabic: عُـثْـمَـان عَـلِي عَـبْـدُ الْـحَـافِـظ, ‘Uthmān ‘Alī ‘Abdul-Ḥāfiẓ), succumbed to exhaustion and drowned as he rescued people in the water. He was later praised as a "martyr" by Iraqi politicians.
Aftermath
A three-day mourning period was announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the catastrophe "will leave a scar in our souls and will be remembered with those who died in the result of terror acts." Many of the dead were buried in the holy Shia Islamic city of Najaf.
There was some political fallout also from the event, with Mutalib Mohammad Ali, the Minister for Health, blaming the defence ministers for not doing enough to secure the area. However, the prime minister dismissed any calls for resignation for any ministry.
After the disaster, a few commentators in the Western media speculated that given the scale of the incident it might tip the country into a civil war by antagonizing the Shi'a community. However, there was no immediate surge in sectarian violence. Opposition groups blamed the government and security forces for failing to prevent the incident. However, these groups themselves often encourage high turn-outs at religious events to prove the relative strength of their sect. The high turn-out at Shia religious events was also due to the fact that they were banned under Saddam Hussein, and many attended to express faith in a way which was denied to them for decades.
World reaction
Governments and world leaders offered their condolences after the catastrophe:
- Syrian Foreign ministry official quoted by state news agency Sana:
- Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi:
- UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking on behalf of the EU and the UK – holder of the EU presidency:
- United States Department of State spokesman Sean McCormack:
- Amr Mussa, Arab League Secretary General:
- Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf:
- UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe: