Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has expressed his sorrow over the death of the Iraqi people, who were crushed in a stampede on a bridge that crosses the Tigris river, in Baghdad on Wednesday. The president sent a message to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also offering his condolences to relatives of the victims. The stampede in which almost 1000 people died occurred when a pilgrims who were crossing the bridge became alarmed after rumors spread of a suicide bomb attack.

The tragic incident is the greatest loss of Iraqi life since the US invasion of 2003.