Baghdad reopens bridge closed since deadly stampede

Authorities in Baghdad on Tuesday opened a major bridge that was closed for more than three years after nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims perished in a deadly stampede.

The move is expected to ease traffic in the bustling capital and help repair the deep sectarian divisions that have plagued the city since the eruption of Sunni-Shiite violence in 2006.

Scores of people, including Shiite and Sunni clerics and other Iraqi officials, walked across the bridge linking historic Sunni and Shiite districts of the capital, hugging and kissing cheeks in a show of national unity.

"With the progress in stabilising the security situation in Adhamiyah and Kadhimiyah and the transformation of them from hot areas into secure areas we decided to reopen the bridge," Major General Qassim Atta said.

"The citizens from both sides demanded to open the bridge after the stabilisation of security," the Baghdad security spokesman added.

Iraqi soldiers had removed concrete barriers on both sides of the bridge and replaced them with checkpoints ahead of the formal reopening ceremony.

The Al-Aima (Imams) bridge over the Tigris river links the centuries-old neighbourhoods of Kadhimiyah and Adhamiyah, the former named for a revered Shiite shrine and the latter built around the tomb of a famed Sunni lawmaker.

"The opening of the bridge is a hope for the future and a victory for the will of the Iraqi people now that they have gotten rid of terrorism," Moain al-Kadhimi, head of Baghdad's city council, told AFP.

"It is a message for Baghdad citizens to encourage national reconciliation and it is a message to the terrorists that there is a determination to open all the roads and bridges despite the challenges."

Dozens of Iaqi officials gathered for the opening amid tight security provided by US and Iraqi troops as Iraqi flags hung from the pillars of the bridge rippled in the autumn beeze.

The reopening comes amid dramatic improvements in security in the capital, where tens of thousands of US and Iraqi forces have largely routed the sectarian militias and insurgents that once ruled large swaths of the city.

Iraqi national police will however continue to man checkpoints and inspect vehicles on both ends of the structure.

The bridge was closed after a deadly stampede on August 31, 2005 during a festival attended by tens of thousands of pilgrims marking the death of revered Shiite Imam Musa Kadhim 12 centuries ago.

A mortar attack and rumours of a suicide bomber among the crowd sparked the tragedy, the deadliest to hit Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of 2003.

On the other side of the bridge sits the Abu Hanifa Shrine, containing the tomb of the eighth century founder of one of the four main Sunni schools of Islamic law.