Mourners flock to funerals of Iraq stampede victims

Thousands of people in Baghdad and its surroundings today flocked to the funerals of nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims killed in a mass stampede during a religious procession.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior today announced that a total of 953 people had died and 815 were injured in the crush on a bridge in north Baghdad. But Health Ministry spokesman Qassim Yahya said 843 had been killed and 439 were injured. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the two counts.