BAGHDAD, August 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi Health Minister Abdel Mottaleb Mohammad Ali demanded Wednesday, August 31, the resignation of the interior and defense ministers, holding them squarely responsible for the stampede tragedy that killed up to 816 Shiites earlier in the day.

“I hold my colleagues in the ministries of interior and defense responsible for what happened today,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted outraged Ali as telling reporters.

“I call upon them to either bear full responsibility or resign.”

Nearly 816 Shiites died and 323 injured in a stampede on a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad’s central district of Al-Kadhimiya and the death toll is expected to climb to 1,000.

“We are still recovering bodies from the river,” a security official told AFP.

Most victims were women and children who died by drowning or being trampled by crowds heading to a religious ceremony.

Ali’s call was echoed by Shiite MP Fattah Al-Shaikh.

“They must step down since they failed to provide security to the Iraqi people,” Shaikh told Al-Jazeera.

“Are we protected by the Iraqis or the Americans?” he added in an emotional voice. “The two ministers (interior and defense) are undoubtedly to blame for the stampede.”

Shaikh added both ministers were fully aware that the Al-Aaimmah (Imams) Bridge was not fit for the passage of this large number of people.

“The interior ministry has set up many concrete barriers on the bridge, which made matters worse,” Dulaimi said. (Reuters)

Defense Minister Sadoun Al-Dulaimi and Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh held a joint press conference and insisted that the incident was a mere stampeded.

Dulaimi said the bridge was opened to facilitate the progress of Shiites to Al-Kadhimiya.

Many of the dead drowned after falling off the Al-Aaimmah bridge into the Tigris river in a surge of panic triggered by rumors that suicide bombers were in the crowd, according to various eyewitnesses.

Hospitals were filled with the sounds of screaming and wailing as disconsolate men and women searched for loved ones.

Television showed heart-rending images of women weeping over the bodies of their dead children in hospitals. Dozens of bodies were strewn across the floor.

Piles of shoes of the victims littered the bridge. (Reuters)

Adnan Al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Waqfs and an umbrella group called the National Conference for the Sunni People of Iraq, held the interior minister accountable for the tragedy.

“The interior ministry has set up many concrete barriers [designed to foil car bombs] on the bridge, which made matters worse,” Dulaimi told Al-Jazeera.

Dulaimi said the stampede was an accidental accident that could take place elsewhere, citing stampedes in the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

“It has everything to do with poor organization,” Dulaimi stressed.

Piles of shoes of the victims littered the bridge, where the waist-high concrete barriers were stained with the blood of victims.

Many Sunnis in Al-Adhamiya neighborhood rushed to offer help to the injured.