A stampede broke out at Karbala in Iraq after a walkway collapsed during Ashoura commemorations, leaving at least 31 people dead and around 100 injured.
According to officials, the stampede occurred toward the end of the procession near the gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine. However, Afdhal al-Shami, a shrine official, denied the existence of a collapse or any cracks in the walkway and said that "It was a stampede that led to this incident."
Mohammed Shenin Jebir, a pilgrim treated at the Hussein Medical City for cuts and bruises above his right eye, narrated "Visitors suddenly fell on the ground and there was a strong stampede, there were many pilgrims who all fell on top of each other." He claimed that everything happened fast.
The Ashoura procession is attended by hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims annually. It commemorates the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, the Imam Hussein, at the hands of a rival Muslim faction in Karbala in 680 A.D. This event is said to have intensified the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.
The officials also said that the stampede happened during the "Tweireej" run toward the shrine of Imam Hussein at around noon. The 2-3 kilometer run symbolizes how al-Abbas ran from the nearby village of Tweireej to rescue Imam Hussein, only to discover that he has been killed.
U.S. Ambassador Matthew H. Tueller offering his condolences to the victims' families on behalf of embassy and said "We lament this tragic loss of life and wish those injured a swift and full recovery." The president and prime minister also offered their condolences and vowed to monitor ongoing investigations.
In 2004, simultaneous suicide and other bombings at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala during the Ashoura procession left 143 dead while in 2005, rumors of a suicide bomber crossing the bridge during a different holiday resulted to over 950 deaths after some of them jumped into the Tigris River.
