Panic of war sparks human tragedy in Iraq

They frisked most pilgrims for suicide belts at haphazard checkpoints, while police trucks mounted with machine guns patrolled streets packed with pilgrims, some having walked for a week or longer from southern Shiite cities.

Shortly after the bridge stampede - with conflicting reports that Sunni insurgents had spiked free food and water with poison - loud speakers urged pilgrims to only take sustenance from mosques or officials with security badges.

On one side of the the Bridge of Imams is Khadimiya, a Shiite city that grew up around the shrine of Imam Khadim. On the other is the Sunni city of Adhamiyah, a dangerous place built around the mosque of Abu Hanifa, a leading Sunni jurist in the 8th century.

The bridge has been closed for months, separating the relatively safe Khadimiya from its more chaotic neighbor, where many supporters of Saddam Hussein still live. It was opened Wednesday to foot traffic for the pilgrimage, particularly for the residents of Sadr City, a poor Shiite neighborhood.

"We didn't have this kind of freedom while living under that infidel Saddam,'' says Hamid Khadim, a resident of the area grabbing some shade and watching pilgrims stream past. "The life of Imam Khadim was a symbol of the tyranny we've lived under for 1,400 years, but not anymore."

The split between Islam's Shiites and Sunnis came soon after the death of the prophet in AD 632. A dispute followed that centered around who should lead the faithful in his absence - the descendants of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, or the members of the family of Uthman, a companion of the prophet who had married two of his daughters.

To Shiites (which means "partisans," from "partisans of Ali"), Ali was the first of the line of Imams, and his close family ties to Muhammad are seen as a source of spiritual authority. In the early centuries of Islam, wars raged between Sunni and Shiite for both spiritual and temporal power. The Sunnis came out on top.

But the Shiites hung around, a persistent thorn in the ruler's side. Ali's descendant Musa Khadim was the seventh Imam, and while he held little political power during his life, his spiritual authority was viewed as a threat by the Sunni Caliph Harun Rashid, who was based in Baghdad.

Legend has it that upon saying "Peace be upon you, o cousin,'' at the tomb of Muhammad in Mecca, he was followed by Khadim, who said "Peace be upon you, o grandfather."

This enraged the powerful Rashid, because he felt it was a claim of a right to rule due to better lineage, and he eventually imprisoned Khadim for the last 15 years of his life, frequently tortured him, and, according to Shiite legend, poisoned the imam and dumped his body on a bridge not far from Wednesday's tragedy.

Imam Khadim's body was then borne to the cemetery - reserved for members of Muhammad's tribe - by a large procession of his followers and buried. It's on this site that his glittering shrine stands today.

Saddam Hussein, like Rashid, felt politically threatened by Shiite veneration of their imams, and massive pilgrimages like Wednesday's were prevented.

"Rashid and Saddam are the same to us,'' says Ghazi al-Majid, a pilgrim. "He helped stir up hatred between Sunni and Shiites."

A group of women, shrouded in black robes, made their way home past a poster of leading Iraqi singer Khadim al-Soher, pitching for the local cellphone company, and each stooped to pick up a stone and lashed it into the sign as they filed past.

"He's wicked, he's not a good Muslim,'' said one of the women.

• Usama Redha contributed to this report.

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