Iraq: Sadr Demands Action over Deadly COVID Unit Fire

Residents hold a candle-lit vigil in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah for the 60 people killed in Monday evening's fire in a Covid isolation unit - AFP
Residents hold a candle-lit vigil in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah for the 60 people killed in Monday evening's fire in a Covid isolation unit - AFP
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Iraq: Sadr Demands Action over Deadly COVID Unit Fire

Residents hold a candle-lit vigil in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah for the 60 people killed in Monday evening's fire in a Covid isolation unit - AFP
Residents hold a candle-lit vigil in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah for the 60 people killed in Monday evening's fire in a Covid isolation unit - AFP

Iraq Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has warned he will hold the Iraqi government responsible if it fails to action over a devastating fire that killed at least 60 people in a COVID isolation unit.

The warning comes just months before Iraq is scheduled to go to the polls in October for an early parliamentary election that was demanded by a protest movement backed by Sadr's supporters.

"It is incumbent on the government to work immediately to firmly and seriously punish those to blame for hospital fires, whether in Nasiriyah or other provinces, no matter their (political) affiliation," Sadr tweeted late Tuesday, AFP reported.

"Otherwise, this government will be held responsible from its lowest to its highest (official)."

The devastating blaze, which swept through the Covid isolation unit of Al-Hussein Hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Monday evening, was the second such fire in Iraq in three months.

An April fire at a Baghdad Covid hospital killed 82 people and was also blamed on the explosion of badly stored oxygen bottles.

That blaze triggered widespread anger and resulted in the suspension and subsequent resignation of then health minister Hassan al-Tamimi, a nominee of Sadr's powerful political bloc.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi has ordered an investigation into Monday's blaze "that will lead to those directly responsible", his office said.

He already dismissed the hospital's manager, the provincial health director and the local civil defense chief.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 13 officials, including the provincial health director.

Sadr demanded that the findings of the official inquiry be released quickly.

"It must not end up like others conducted into previous hospital fires. Or else we have other means of protecting people's safety and dignity."

The health ministry said Wednesday that 60 people had been confirmed to have died in the fire. Forensics experts had identified 39 bodies while 21 were still unidentified.

Demonstrations in honor of the victims were planned in Nasiriyah later after residents held a candle-lit vigil late on Tuesday.



Israeli Military Sets up Roadblocks in Southern Lebanon, Announces It Won’t Withdraw by Deadline

 This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Sets up Roadblocks in Southern Lebanon, Announces It Won’t Withdraw by Deadline

 This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern village of Shaqra on January 25, 2025 shows an Israeli army Merkava main battle tank moving along a road at the entrance of the village of Houla along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. (AFP)

Israel's military Saturday set up roadblocks across border towns and roads in a strategic valley in southern Lebanon, a day before the deadline for it to withdraw from the area under an agreement that halted its war with the Hezbollah group.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, confirmed that it will not complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday as outlined in the ceasefire agreement.

The deal that went into effect in late November gave both sides 60 days to remove their forces from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area, along with UN peacekeepers. Israel says Hezbollah and the Lebanese army haven’t met their obligations, while Lebanon accuses the Israeli army of hindering the Lebanese military from taking over.

In a statement Saturday, the Israeli military said the agreement is progressing. But it said in some sectors, “it has been delayed and will take slightly longer.”

The Lebanese military has said that they had deployed in areas following Israeli troops’ withdrawal, and in a statement Saturday accused the Israeli military of “procrastinating” in their withdrawal from other areas.

Washington appears to support an extension of this withdrawal phase.

While Lebanese army soldiers are dispersed across the south’s western sector, Israeli troops remained in control of most of the southeastern sector.

Members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Israeli tanks and bulldozers have unexpectedly moved and set up several roadblocks, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced Lebanese people trying to return to their villages.

In Mais al-Jabal, peacekeepers from a Nepalese battalion watched in their position along the UN-mandated Blue Line as an Israeli jet flew overhead following the sound of what they said was an Israeli controlled demolition of a building.

There are no residents left in that town and the vast majority of the buildings seen by Associated Press journalists were reduced to rubble or pancaked after intense Israeli shelling and airstrikes, following by clashes during its ground invasion. The few that stood had their walls blown out and are badly damaged. The piles of rubble and debris on the road make it impossible for civilian cars to enter the town that once was home to a few thousand people.

The scene is similar in neighboring towns, including Blida and Aitaroun, where almost all the structures have collapsed into mounds of rubble and no residents have returned.

The peacekeepers tried to appeal for permission to move across the roadblocks, but were not authorized to do so. An AP crew that had joined UNIFIL on patrol was stranded as a result.

“There is still a lot of IDF (Israeli army) activity going on in the area,” said Maj. Dinesh Bhandari of UNIFIL’s Nepalese battalion in Mays al-Jabal overlooking the Blue Line. “We are waiting for the deconfliction and then we will support to deploy the LAF (Lebanese army) in that position.”

When asked about weapons belonging to Hezbollah, Bhandari said they had found caches of weapons, munitions and mines in some structures during their patrols.

Israel says it has been taking down the remaining infrastructure left by the Hezbollah, which has a strong military and political presence in the south. Israel since its ground incursion into Lebanon said it also targeted a tunnel network, and has conducted large-scale demolition of buildings in a handful of border towns.

Lebanese officials have complained that the Israeli military is also destroying civilian homes and infrastructure.

In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun pointed to the “destruction of villages adjacent to the southern border and the bulldozing of lands, which will hinder the return of residents to their areas,” according to the state-run National News Agency. France, along with the US, is a guarantor of the ceasefire deal.

Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of over 1 million displaced during the war. Large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs were destroyed in Israeli bombardments.