Hajj death rate grows after new count

1,399 died during stampede, crush at Mecca event

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The crush and stampede last month outside of Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca killed at least 1,399 people during the hajj pilgrimage, a new tally Thursday showed, 630 more than the kingdom’s official toll.

The Associated Press count of the dead from the worst tragedy to strike the hajj in a quarter-century comes as Saudi Arabia faces threats ranging from an Islamic State insurgency, a war in Yemen against Shiite rebels and weakening global oil prices gnawing away at its reserves.

Any disaster at the hajj, a pillar of Islamic faith, could be seen as a blow to the kingdom’s cherished stewardship of Islam’s holiest sites. This season saw two, including the Sept. 11 collapse of a crane at Mecca’s Grand Mosque that killed 111.

Saudi Arabia has been hesitant to release updated casualty figures from the Sept. 24 stampede, even as hundreds remain missing.

“Discrediting the Saudi handling of the hajj undermines the kingdom’s prestige and legitimacy across the Islamic world,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who runs the Washingtonbased Brookings Institution’s intelligence project, wrote on one of the think tank’s blogs this week.

The AP count of the dead is based on tolls offered by 18 of the over 100 countries that took part in the hajj this year. Iran said it had 465 pilgrims killed, while Egypt lost 148 and Indonesia 120.

Others include Nigeria with 99, Pakistan with 89, India with 81, Mali with 70, Bangladesh with 63, Senegal with 54, Benin with 51, Cameroon with 42, Ethiopia with 31, Morocco with 27, Algeria with 25, Ghana with 12, Chad with 11, Kenya with eight and Turkey with three.