Iraqis Dig up COVID-19 Dead to Rebury in Family Graves

For relatives, reburying the body of their loved one and ensuring the proper rites were given has helped provide closure after the sudden death. AFP
For relatives, reburying the body of their loved one and ensuring the proper rites were given has helped provide closure after the sudden death. AFP
TT
20

Iraqis Dig up COVID-19 Dead to Rebury in Family Graves

For relatives, reburying the body of their loved one and ensuring the proper rites were given has helped provide closure after the sudden death. AFP
For relatives, reburying the body of their loved one and ensuring the proper rites were given has helped provide closure after the sudden death. AFP

Mohammad al-Bahadli dug into Iraq's hot desert sand with bare hands to reach his father's corpse.

"Now he can finally be with our people, our family, in the old cemetery," 49-year-old Bahadli said, as relatives sobbed over the body, wrapped in a shroud.

After restrictions were eased for the burying of those who died of the novel coronavirus, Iraqis are exhuming the victims to rebury them in their rightful place in family cemeteries.

For months, families of those who died after contracting Covid-19 were barred from taking the body back to bury in family tombs, for fear the corpses could still spread the virus.

Instead, the authorities established a "coronavirus cemetery" in a plot of desert outside the shrine city of Najaf, where volunteers in protective gear carefully buried victims spaced five metres (16 feet) apart, AFP reported.

Only one relative was permitted to attend the speedy burials, which often happened in the middle of the night.

Victims from all religious sects were buried there.

But on September 7, Iraqi authorities announced they would permit those who died after contracting Covid-19 to be relocated to the cemetery of their family's choice.

Many of those buried under the emergency rules came from other parts of the country.

"The first time, he was buried so far away," Bahadli said of his 80-year-old father's funeral rites.

"I'm not sure it was done in the proper religious way."

Iraq has been one of the hardest-hit countries in the Middle East by Covid-19, with more than 280,000 infections and nearly 8,000 deaths.

On September 4, the World Health Organization (WHO) said "the likelihood of transmission when handling human remains is low."

Days later, after pressure from families, Iraqi authorities announced they would permit bodies to be transferred only by "specialized health teams."

But the first re-burials proved chaotic.

At the "coronavirus cemetery" in the desert outside Najaf, hundreds of families began arriving late Thursday to dig up their family member and carry the body home.

They brought their own shovels, baskets to scoop away the sand, and new wooden coffins to carry the dead.

The sounds of fierce sobbing and mourning prayers mixed with the clinks of pickaxes echoed across the sand.

There were no medical professionals or cemetery guides on site to help families locate or properly excavate the bodies, an AFP correspondent said.

In some cases, families dug into a grave site marked with a relative's name, only to find an empty coffin, or to uncover the body of a young man when they were expecting to find the corpse of their elderly mother.

Other bodies were not wrapped in burial shrouds, required by Islam as a sign of respect.

The findings sparked outraged criticism of the state-sponsored armed group that had taken charge of the burials in recent months, with some angry relatives setting fire to the faction's base nearby.

"The grave-diggers don't have expertise or the right materials," said Abdallah Kareem, whose brother Ahmed died of complications from Covid-19.

"They don't even know how to locate the graves," he told AFP while tending to the grave.

Kareem, who comes from some 230 kilometres (140 miles) to the south in Iraq's Muthanna province, opted not to rebury his brother in case it violated religious edicts.

In Islam, the deceased must be buried as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours.

Cremation is strictly prohibited and reburials are virtually unheard of -- although not necessarily outlawed if the body is kept intact, a Najaf cleric told AFP.

Despite the complications, families were nevertheless relieved to have the closure that a traditional burial brought.

"Since my father was buried here, I keep replaying his words in my head before he died: 'My son, try to bury me in the family cemetery, don't let me be too far from my relatives,'" Hussein, another mourner who gave only his first name, told AFP.

The 53-year old dug up his father's body by hand to transfer him to the vast Wadi al-Salam cemetery.

"The dream that had been haunting me for these last few months has been realized," Hussein said.



Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
TT
20

Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Iran-Israel war has helped strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu domestically and overseas, just as his grip on power looked vulnerable.

On the eve of launching strikes on Iran, his government looked to be on the verge of collapse, with a drive to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews threatening to scupper his fragile coalition.

Nearly two years on from Hamas's unprecedented attack in 2023, Netanyahu was under growing domestic criticism for his handling of the war in Gaza, where dozens of hostages remain unaccounted for, said AFP.

Internationally too, he was coming under pressure including from longstanding allies, who since the war with Iran began have gone back to expressing support.

Just days ago, polls were predicting Netanyahu would lose his majority if new elections were held, but now, his fortunes appear to have reversed, and Israelis are seeing in "Bibi" the man of the moment.

– 'Reshape the Middle East' –

For decades, Netanyahu has warned of the risk of a nuclear attack on Israel by Iran -- a fear shared by most Israelis.

Yonatan Freeman, a geopolitics expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Netanyahu's argument that the pre-emptive strike on Iran was necessary draws "a lot of public support" and that the prime minister has been "greatly strengthened".

Even the opposition has rallied behind him.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.

A poll published Saturday by a conservative Israeli channel showed that 54 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the prime minister.

The public had had time to prepare for the possibility of an offensive against Iran, with Netanyahu repeatedly warning that Israel was fighting for its survival and had an opportunity to "reshape the Middle East."

During tit-for-tat military exchanges last year, Israel launched air raids on targets in Iran in October that are thought to have severely damaged Iranian air defenses.

Israel's then-defense minister Yoav Gallant said the strikes had shifted "the balance of power" and had "weakened" Iran.

"In fact, for the past 20 months, Israelis have been thinking about this (a war with Iran)," said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at Israel's Open University.

Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has ordered military action in Gaza, against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as targets in Syria where long-time leader Bashar al-Assad fell in December last year.

"Netanyahu always wants to dominate the agenda, to be the one who reshuffles the deck himself -- not the one who reacts -- and here he is clearly asserting his Churchillian side, which is, incidentally, his model," Charbit said.

"But depending on the outcome and the duration (of the war), everything could change, and Israelis might turn against Bibi and demand answers."

– Silencing critics –

For now, however, people in Israel see the conflict with Iran as a "necessary war," according to Nitzan Perelman, a researcher specialized in Israel at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.

"Public opinion supports this war, just as it has supported previous ones," she added.

"It's very useful for Netanyahu because it silences criticism, both inside the country and abroad."

In the weeks ahead of the Iran strikes, international criticism of Netanyahu and Israel's military had reached unprecedented levels.

After more than 55,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, and a blockade that has produced famine-like conditions there, Israel has faced growing isolation and the risk of sanctions, while Netanyahu himself is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

But on Sunday, two days into the war with Iran, the Israeli leader received a phone call from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has held talks with numerous counterparts.

"There's more consensus in Europe in how they see Iran, which is more equal to how Israel sees Iran," explained Freeman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Israel was doing "the dirty work... for all of us."

The idea that a weakened Iran could lead to regional peace and the emergence of a new Middle East is appealing to the United States and some European countries, according to Freeman.

But for Perelman, "Netanyahu is exploiting the Iranian threat, as he always has."