'Bridge of the Imams disaster') occurred on August 31, 2005 when 965 people died following a panic, and subsequent crowd crush, on the Al-Aaimmah Bridge, which crosses the Tigris river in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

[1] At the time of the disaster, around one million pilgrims had gathered around or were marching toward Al Kadhimiya Mosque, the shrine of the Shi'ite Imam Musa al-Kazim.

Earlier in the day, seven people had been killed and dozens more wounded in a mortar attack upon the assembled crowd for which an Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group claimed responsibility.

The pressure of the crowd caused the bridge's iron railings to give way,[1] dropping hundreds of people 9 m (30 feet) into the Tigris river.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the catastrophe "will leave a scar in our souls and will be remembered with those who died in the result of terror acts."

[5] After the disaster, a few commentators in the Western media speculated that given the scale of the incident it might tip the country into a civil war by antagonizing the Shi'a community.