|
Foul play suspected as world mourns tragic Iraqi deaths
 Shiite Iran led international outrage over the deaths of nearly 800 people killed in a stampede as they headed to a Shiite shrine in Iraq, blaming "suspicious hands" bent on causing havoc in the country. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, quoted by the student news agency ISNA, expressed his country's "condolences and sympathy with the Iraqi people and government." Asefi added that "suspicious hands are involved in conspiracies to incite violence and bloodshed among the different Iraqi groups and tribes so that they disturb the security and calm of the Iraqi people."
| So why's your country harboring the al-Qaeda leadership? Wouldn't that make you responsible, too? Perhaps you should think seriously about killing them all. |
At least 816 people either drowned or were crushed to death or suffocated when marchers surged on to a bridge over the Tigris River in panic after reports that a suicide bomber was among them. Another 323 were injured. The stampede occurred minutes after rebel mortar fire struck close to a nearby shrine where faithful were gathering, killing at least seven people. Insurgents led by Sunnis who held power for decades have vowed to attack the majority Shiites following the April 2003 toppling of their leader Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces.
| Sounds like vows of Dire Revenge™ should be coming any time now... |
Syria, another neighbor of Iraq, expressed its "sorrow and sadness" over the incident that "cost the lives of hundreds of persons among the brotherly Iraqi people," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "The Syrian government and people express their sympathy to Iraqis and to the families of the victims, and they wait for the day when security, stability and progress reign in the country," the unidentified official said, quoted by the state news agency SANA. Syria has been regularly accused by the United States and the Iraqi government of not doing enough to close its borders to people joining or supporting the insurgency, a charge Damascus denies.
| Despite the number of Syrian bad guyz rounded up... |
 In London, meanwhile, Britain, which holds the EU presidency, condemned the attack and blamed "terrorism" for inciting the deaths. "This is a most shocking and terrible tragedy, initiated by terrorism, and its scale almost defies imagination," said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in a statement. "This was a despicable assault on innocent civilians attending a religious ceremony at the local mosque. The depravity of the individuals responsible knows no bounds," the statement added.
Posted by: Fred 2005-09-01 |
