Related: 965 killed in Baghdad stampede

Iraqis look at belongings of pilgrims lost in a stampede in Baghdad. Mass funerals were being held across in Iraq for many of the nearly 1,000 Shiite Muslim pilgrims killed by a stampede on a bridge over the Tigris River. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    BEIJING, Sep. 2 (Xinhuanet)-- The near 1000 victims of a deadly stampede on a bridge are mourned on Thursday in Bagdad.

    However, tension did not ease one day after the deadliest incident since the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003.

    Gunfire erupted at the bridge during a protest march, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding four other people. according to the report of AP.  

    Meanwhile, US jets launched airstrikes for the third time in a week near the Syrian border, destroying a train station which the US command said was used by al-Qaida in Iraq to store weapons, AP reported.

    Interior Minister Bayan Jabor and two top Shiite officials blamed insurgents for the stampede, saying a terrorist spread a rumor of a suicide bomber in the crowd.

    But Defense Minister Saadoun Al-Dulaimi said the stampede was not related to sectarian tensions. "What happened has nothing at all to do with any sectarian tension," he said on television.

    One wounded Iraqi told Xinhua that the government should take responsibility for it, because the tragedy was triggered due to sheer mess of the organization.

    Adnan Kadhimi, deputy chief of staff to the prime minister, said the health minister is still trying to get an accurate count of casualties, and an investigation has been launched to see if negligence or foul play is to blame. The dead and injured are being tested for poison after persistent rumors that water and food served to the pilgrims was tainted.

    The death toll in the stampede on a Baghdad bridge Wednesday has risen to 965, with another 465 injured, according to a source with the interior ministry.

    Wednesday's stampede came at a time when tensions were running high between the country's major religious and ethnic communities before a referendum on a draft constitution due in October. Enditem

    (Agencies)