Iraq Keeps Up Search after Bodies Pulled from Collapsed Shrine

Iraqi emergency services search the rubble for survivors after a landslide hit the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala Mohammed SAWAF AFP
Iraqi emergency services search the rubble for survivors after a landslide hit the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala Mohammed SAWAF AFP
TT
20

Iraq Keeps Up Search after Bodies Pulled from Collapsed Shrine

Iraqi emergency services search the rubble for survivors after a landslide hit the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala Mohammed SAWAF AFP
Iraqi emergency services search the rubble for survivors after a landslide hit the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala Mohammed SAWAF AFP

Iraqi rescue workers Sunday were desperately searching for survivors trapped under rubble after a landslide hit a Shiite Muslim shrine, killing at least four people.

"We have found four bodies, including of a woman" at the site near Karbala, central Iraq, civil defense official Abdelrahman Jawdat told AFP.

Between six and eight pilgrims had been reported trapped under the debris of the shrine, known as Qattarat al-Imam Ali, civil defense spokesman Nawas Sabah Shaker had said earlier.

Three children have been rescued following Saturday's disaster, emergency services said, adding that they were in "good condition" and being monitored in a hospital.

Rescue teams working through the night were able to provide supplies of oxygen, as well as food and water to some of those trapped through gaps in the rubble, state news agency INA said.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh on Twitter called on the "heroic" rescue workers to "mobilize all efforts to save the trapped people".

The emergency responders said earlier they were maintaining verbal contact with the victims "to reassure them".

"We are working hard, with the utmost precision, to reach" those trapped, said Jawdat, director of the civil defense media department.

"Any mistake could lead to further collapses."

One man at the scene, Bassem Khazali, said his nephew was among those buried.

"I am afraid that all the efforts undertaken will be in vain... We want to know what happened, why it happened," Khazali told AFP.

Shaker told AFP that "sand dunes and rocks collapsed onto the shrine building", blaming the saturation of the earth that had been caused by humidity.

The landslide on Saturday afternoon hit the shrine located in a natural depression about 25 kilometers west of the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

The rocks and sand started sliding because of the "saturation of the earthen embankment adjacent to the shrine", the civil defense told INA.

"This led to the collapse of about 30 percent of the area of the building, which measures about 100 square meters (1,000 square feet)."



Trump's Idea to 'Clean Out' Gaza Threatens Jordan, Egypt, Analysts Say

Both Jordan and Egypt have repeatedly rejected any push to remove Palestinians from their land. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP
Both Jordan and Egypt have repeatedly rejected any push to remove Palestinians from their land. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP
TT
20

Trump's Idea to 'Clean Out' Gaza Threatens Jordan, Egypt, Analysts Say

Both Jordan and Egypt have repeatedly rejected any push to remove Palestinians from their land. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP
Both Jordan and Egypt have repeatedly rejected any push to remove Palestinians from their land. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

US President Donald Trump's proposal to uproot Gazans to Egypt and Jordan is a "hostile" move against the two US allies and aims to "liquidate the Palestinian cause", Jordanian analysts told AFP.

The US leader on Saturday floated an idea to "clean out" Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas had reduced the Palestinian territory to a "demolition site".

"I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change," Trump added.

He said the displacement of Gazans to neighboring Egypt and Jordan could be done "temporarily or could be long term".

For Oraib Rantawi, director of the Al Quds Center for Political Studies in Amman, the idea is "a hostile position" by the new US administration towards Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt.

Jordan already hosts 2.3 million Palestinian refugees and has repeatedly rejected any project aiming to make the kingdom an "alternative homeland".

"Our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians," Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday.

Rantawi said the idea was "a threat for the security and stability" of Israel's two neighbors, seeing a "message of pressure" for Amman and a "poisoned gift" for Cairo.

Such a plan would bring closer a wider displacement of Palestinians, particularly from the occupied West Bank to Jordan and aim to "liquidate the Palestinian cause at the expense of Arab countries", Rantawi told AFP.

For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948.

Trump's proposal comes after the United States issued a broad freeze on foreign aid except that destined for Egypt and Israel.

'Unrealistic'

Jordanian writer and political analyst Adel Mahmoud called Trump's idea "unrealistic" and a reflection of "the position of the Israeli far right" made under "a humanitarian pretext".

"Jordan and Egypt will not accept it," he added.

Egypt has previously warned against any "forced displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert, and on Sunday rejected any infringement of Palestinians' "inalienable rights... whether temporarily or long-term".

"According to our experience of the 70 to 80 years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, any temporary measure adopted by Israel ends up becoming permanent," Rantawi said.

Saleh al-Armouti, an MP with Jordan's main opposition Islamic Action Front party, said Trump's proposal was a "violation of Jordan's sovereignty" and a "declaration of war".

King Abdullah II has set out red lines including no "judaisation of Jerusalem, no resettlement of Palestinians and no alternative homeland", he said.