Baghdad, Iraq - In the aftermath of Baghdad’s bridge stampede that claimed more than a thousand lives last week, an unlikely hero has risen as a symbol of Iraqi unity.
Uthman al-Ubaidi, a 19-year-old Sunni, jumped into the river Tigris where dozens of pilgrims from the rival Shia sect were drowning in the murky waters after being forced off the bridge overhead.
He rescued six people from the brink of death. When he went back for a seventh, his strength failed him and he never returned.
After heavy media coverage, the young man from Aadhamiya — a Sunni district across the river from Kadhamiya, the site of a major Shia mosque — has become a household name, and a rallying call for Iraqi reconciliation.
Dozens of posters of him are plastered on walls across his district. His image sits in front of two main mosques, one Shia and one Sunni. Shias blame Sunnis for firing rockets at Shia pilgrims during a religious march and then spreading rumours of a suicide bomber, triggering a stampede which killed 1,005 people.
But Ubaidi’s family hopes his death can bring Iraq’s fractious communities together.
Ali al-Ubaidi, the boy’s father who accepted condolences from a flurry of visitors, sobbed as he stood in Uthman’s bedroom next to a bed now covered with flowers.
“I am really proud of my only son,” he said. “At first I was distraught but when I heard he drowned after rescuing so many people it eased the pain. The sectarian conspiracy has ended, Uthman was the one who put out the fire,” he said in an optimistic tone.
Najla Mohammed, Uthman’s mother, said he was studying for a Maths exam when he left the house because of calls for help.
She said her son loathed the sectarian killings rampant over the past two years since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
”All of his friends were Shi'ites, it was his dream that Iraqis should be united regardless of their sect,” she said.
Sheikh Mu'ayad al-Aadhami, a preacher at the Sunni Abu Hanifa mosque near the bridge who called for people to help Shi'ites, said Uthman and other Sunnis were a source of pride for all Iraqis.
”Uthman was one of those who responded to our call, he paid the price for helping to save his brothers. Their souls all went to heaven together,” he said.