In another ray of hope from Iraq, a Sunni boy, Othman Abdul Hafez, sacrificed his own life while saving Shiite pilgrims during last week's stampede in Baghdad. From the BBC:

Witnesses say Othman Abdul Hafez drowned as he tried to pull yet another Shia pilgrim from the River Tigris, having saved up to seven others. …

About 1,000 people died in the stampede during a Shia religious procession.

The incident was apparently triggered by rumours of an imminent suicide attack on the ceremony.

As my colleague at netWMD pointed out, this is not the only good news from Iraq's Sunni quarter of late.

While I appreciate that the BBC reported on such positive news, a search of the their website for the terms “civil war Iraq” returns 1,422 articles. On Friday, the Beeb posted an article entitled, “Stampede illustrates Iraq tensions.” But today, the British news service says:

His actions [Othman Abdul Hafez’s] belie predictions that the stampede - blamed on Sunni-led insurgents - may exacerbate sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shias at a time of sectarian divisions over the drafting of Iraq's new constitution.