More than 600 dead in Iraq stampede

BAGHDAD - Most of the 647 dead in a Baghdad bridge stampede today were women and children, a source in Iraq's Interior Ministry said. 

"Most died by drowning or being trampled on," the source told Reuters.

"Most were women and children."

By 10.15pm NZT the death toll had risen to 647, with 301 injured.

The stampede on a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday began after the crowd, gathered for a religious ceremony, was panicked by rumours a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, hospital and police sources said.

Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari declared three days of mourning after the stampede, state television reported. 

A hospital source said bodies were being sent to at least three hospitals.

"We have lost count, we have hundreds and hundreds of dead and injured," a Health Ministry official told Reuters.

"We can't tell how many are dead. Many bodies are still in the river," the official added.

Earlier at least seven people were killed in three separate mortar attacks on the crowd as several thousand people marched to the Kadhimiya mosque in the old district of north Baghdad for a religious ceremony.

Tensions have been running high between the main religious and ethnic communities ahead of a referendum on a divisive new constitution for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

Parliament completed work on a draft constitution on Sunday and it must be approved by a popular mandate before Oct. 15 to come into force.

The crowd was celebrating the martyrdom of Musa Al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure among Shi'ites.

Explosions were heard across Baghdad on Wednesday morning.

A Reuters correspondent reported hearing six mortar rounds exploding near the main airport, although the US military had no information of any attacks there.

Despite the draft constitution, there has been no sign of an easing in the insurgency waged by Sunni Muslims, dominant under Saddam, and international guerrillas inspired by Osama bin Laden.

The US-led coalition, which invaded Iraq in March 2003, has been battling insurgents while Iraqis have tried to form a new post-Saddam constitution and government.

The persistent fighting has helped to push down President George W Bush's approval rating to a career low of 45 per cent on concerns over the war and soaring fuel prices, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Tuesday.

The US war in Iraq now costs more per month than the average monthly cost of military operations in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

The report, entitled "The Iraq Quagmire" from the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus, both liberal, anti-war organisations, put the cost of current operations in Iraq at US$5.6 billion ($8.22 billion) per month. This breaks down to almost US$186 million ($273.12 million) a day.

- REUTERS