14 trampled during hajj ritual

MINA, Saudi Arabia -- Fourteen pilgrims were trampled to death Tuesday when some worshippers tripped amid a jostling crowd during a ritual of the annual Muslim pilgrimage in which the faithful throw stones at pillars representing the devil's temptations.

The ritual, during which hundreds of thousands of people file past the stone pillars, has been the scene of lethal bottlenecks in past hajj pilgrimages.

Tuesday morning, one group of pilgrims had finished the stoning and was leaving the site when they met another group in a Mina market area, swelling the crowd to dangerous proportions, said hajj security director Brig. Abdel Aziz bin Mohammed bin Said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Some pilgrims fell and were killed by the crush of people around them. "A lot of overcrowding took place, some of them fell on the ground, which lead to the death of 14 pilgrims," bin Said said.

Three Indians, four Pakistanis, two Egyptians, an Iranian and a Yemeni were among the dead. The rest had not yet been identified.

The number of injured wasn't released, but two of those hurt -- whose injuries were described as moderate -- remained hospitalized Tuesday evening, the news agency reported.

In 2001, 35 people died in a stampede during the devil-stoning ritual. In 1998, 180 died performing the same ritual. A year earlier, more than 340 people died in a fire that ripped through pilgrims' tents in Mina.

The ritual in the tent city of Mina outside Mecca is the last in the five-day hajj, in which 2 million Muslims from around the world are participating.

The pilgrims, who crammed the streets under a scorching sun, gathered around the pillars to throw seven pebbles and chanted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is Great." The ritual will be repeated over the next two days as the hajj winds down.

Able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj at least once in their lives if they can afford it. The ritual begins in the nearby holy city of Mecca, birthplace of Islam and its seventh-century prophet, Muhammad, and is a journey that, according to Islamic teachings, cleanses the soul and wipes away sins.

More than 700,000 pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia joined about 1.5 million foreigners in this year's hajj.

"This is my third time to perform the hajj, yet I feel as light as a feather, as if I am newly born," said Wahba Abdel Aziz, a 36-year old Egyptian civil engineer. "I wish that God would accept my pilgrimage and wash my sins away."

Tuesday's ritual also marked the beginning of the leading Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice. To celebrate the occasion, pilgrims and Muslims around the world slaughter a camel, sheep or cow to commemorate God's giving Abraham a ram to sacrifice in place of his son.

Pilgrims also can pay $100 at government-supervised outlets that slaughter the animals and distribute the meat to the needy worldwide. "We have been working constantly for three days," said Hani Bayounis, who works at one of the outlets.

Celebrations around the Islamic world include greeting friends and relatives, distributing food and sweets and visiting graves of deceased relatives. In Cairo, families boarded Nile river boats and headed out for a relaxing day off.

The Iraq crisis has overshadowed this year's hajj and feast, with Muslim leaders in Lebanon canceling traditional Eid al-Adha receptions where government and religious officials usually exchange holiday greetings. The move was a show of sympathy for Iraq.

Holiday sermons in Beirut called on Arabs and Muslims everywhere to unite and prepare for the consequences of a U.S.-led war now widely seen as inevitable.

Sunni Muslim Grand Mufti of Lebanon Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani delivered a scathing attack against an America he said was driven by "mad interests, aspirations and ... the vanity of its power."

"Iraq has been dying for a long time, dying a slow death," Kabbani said. "They (Americans) place themselves above humanity and want to drag the whole world behind them. They want to impose their ideas, methods and ways of living."

Following the ritual stoning, pilgrims gathered in the streets or barber shops nearby to have their hair shortened or completely cut -- customary on completing the rituals.

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