Sunnis donate blood for Shi’ite stampede victims

Sunni religious leaders have called on their followers to donate blood for Shi’ite victims of the tragic stampede in Baghdad last week. The call was made in good faith, following a reported shortage of supplies. More than 1,110 people were killed and more than 900 wounded in the Kadhimiya district, where several million pilgrims gathered to visit the burial place of a revered Shi’ite leader, Iraqi officials said. The stampede, on 31 August, happened after rumours that a suicide bomber was about to attack. Hundreds of people on a bridge over the river Tigris ran for take cover. The railings gave way under pressure and many people drowned, officials said. “We asked all our Muslim brothers to donate blood in order to help the victims of the disaster which brought sadness to all of us, especially because this reminds us of the calamity that Fallujah went through when US soldiers were fighting insurgents earlier this year and last,” Adnan al-Dulaymi, a spokesperson for the Sunni council in Fallujah said. The call has reportedly resulted in queues of people at the doors of the main hospitals in the capital over the past few days. Imams in Fallujah have been using loudspeaker systems during prayer time in mosques to call on people to make donations. Khalid Mahmoud, a senior official at the Ministry of Health, said that they had received more than 1,800 of bottles of blood from the city of Fallujah and around 1,200 from the Shi’ite city of Amarah, in the south of the country. “We thank all the people who have helped innocent people from this unexpected incident and that we are able to supply the wounded due to continuing donations,” Mahmoud noted. According to the official, there were concerns that main blood bank in the capital did not have sufficient supplies. “It was the best way to guarantee that we participate in saving the lives of many and to show to the world that our country is for all Iraqis, because we are brothers,” al-Dulaymi added. Mahmoud also explained that the number of deaths was likely to increase due to the fact that many parents had buried their loved ones immediately after the accident and deaths had not been registered. In addition, some bodies had only been discovered recently. The central blood bank has informed the authorities that it would need a continuous supply to support emergency requirements.