In Iraq, “On 31 August 2005, crowds of Shi’a pilgrims converged on the Bridge of the Imams connecting the ‘Adhamiyya district of Baghdad with Kadhimain, the site of the shrines of the two Imams. They had been marshaled from all corners of Iraq by the Shi’a political parties, partly to commemorate a religious occasion and partly to demonstrate the crowd-mustering and street power of the Shi’a masses. …Just before midday, rumours swept the masses on the bridge that a suicide bomber was in the midst of the crowd. Panic and pandemonium ensued, and in the resulting crush more than a thousand people were killed. …It was the worst such tragedy in Iraq’s history.”
– Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Pages 431-432