Najaf, Iraq -Thousands of mourners flooded the southern holy city of Najaf on Thursday to bury victims of a devastating stampede that killed about 1,000 Shiite Muslims and stirred criticism that the Iraqi government had failed to protect its people.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, visiting the wounded in a Baghdad hospital, blamed insurgents for the tragedy and pledged “a very harsh hit.”
Jaafari’s government on Thursday also carried out the first death sentences since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, hanging three Iraqi men convicted of murder.
News of the executions was all but lost as local TV stations broadcast nonstop images of mass funerals in Najaf and Baghdad.
The footage showed orphaned children, weeping relatives and rows of bodies.
Grieving and angry Iraqis debated who was responsible for the single biggest loss of life since the war began.
The stampede occurred Wednesday when thousands of Shiites in a religious procession panicked after hearing a rumor of a suicide bomber on a bridge.
Some angry mourners said the government didn’t provide enough crowd control and complained that Baghdad’s dilapidated medical infrastructure wasn’t prepared to cope with a disaster of this magnitude.
Many blamed insurgents for creating a climate of fear in the capital; others said the U.S. military is ultimately responsible for Iraq’s security.
“The Americans are responsible,” said Abbas Kadhim, 39, whose mother died on the bridge and was buried in Najaf. “Their planes were monitoring the event and yet they stay away because they’re afraid of these ceremonies.”
But the harshest criticism was reserved for Jaafari’s government, especially by impoverished Shiites who traveled from the Baghdad slum of Sadr City to Najaf to bury hundreds of victims. Many Sadr City residents are loyal to the rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose lieutenants made televised calls for the resignations of Iraq’s interior, defense and health ministers. Al-Sadr also dispatched about 400 of his militiamen to assist with burials in Najaf.
“The Jaafari administration has totally failed in providing security and every other basic service,” said Hameed Mohammed, 33, a Sadr City resident who buried his brother in Najaf.
