Fire at shopping centre in eastern Iraq kills more than 60 people
Kut, Jul 17 (AP): A fire engulfed a newly opened shopping centre in eastern Iraq, killing more than 60 people, including children, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
Civil defense teams rescued more than 45 people who became trapped when the fire broke out late Wednesday in the city of Kut in Wasit province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Others are still missing, according to the state-run Iraqi News Agency.
Photographs and videos on local media showed the five-story Corniche Hypermarket Mall engulfed in flames only a week after it had opened. While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, officials and residents alleged that a lack of fire safety measures in the building contributed to the scale of the tragedy.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said in a statement that 61 people died in the shopping center fire, most of them from suffocation. Among the dead were 14 charred bodies that remain unidentified, it said.
The fire was deeply painful for the community, said 60-year-old Kut resident Abdul Redha Thahab,
“My friend and neighbor's family, who lived right next to my house — a family of six, the husband, his wife, their two daughters, and two young children — all perished in the fire,” he said.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Miyahi declared three days of mourning. He said legal cases were filed against the building owner and shopping center owner, but did not specify what the charges were.
“We assure the families of the innocent victims that we will not be lenient with those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident,” al-Mayyeh said.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press, al-Miyahi called the fire “a heartbreaking tragedy for the people of Wasit” and alleged that the building owner had not implemented the necessary fire safety measures when he converted it into a shopping center.
He said that no government official has resigned or been dismissed as a result of the fire, and that they are currently awaiting the results of the investigation. The results of the preliminary investigation will be released within 48 hours, he said.
The building owner could not immediately be reached for comment.
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
Thahab, the Kut resident, said the building lacked fire safety measures, including emergency exit stairways. Residents of the neighborhood had joined firefighters in battling the blaze because there were not enough fire trucks to quickly control it, he said.
Some of the victims came from farther afield. In the southern city of Najaf, Imad al-Quraishi walked in the funeral procession of a relative who died in the blaze. Like others, he blamed poor safety standards.
“No emergency exits, no fire extinguisher, no care, nothing,” he said, adding that if the authorities in the area “have any honor, they will submit their resignation today.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani visited the site of the fire Thursday. He did not speak publicly at the site, but said in a statement that he had directed the interior minister to go to investigate and take measures to prevent a recurrence.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
