Over 110 killed, 150 injured as accidental fire engulfs Iraq wedding party during bride and groom dance show

Agencies
September 27, 2023

iraq.jpg

Mosul (Iraq) Sept 27: A raging fire seemingly caused by fireworks set off to celebrate a Christian wedding consumed a hall packed with guests in northern Iraq, killing at least 110 people and injuring 150 others as authorities warned on Wednesday the death toll could still rise.

Authorities said that flammable building materials also contributed to the latest disaster to hit Iraq’s dwindling Christian minority. The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq’s Nineveh province, authorities said.

That’s a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometres (205 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but the Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing fireworks shooting up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.

In the blaze’s aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as people walked through the scene of the fire, the only light coming from television cameras and the lights of onlookers’ mobile phones.

Survivors arrived at local hospitals in bandages, receiving oxygen, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organised more oxygen cylinders.

Some of those burned included children. Ambulance sirens wailed for hours after the fire as paramedics brought out the injured.

Other footage shown on other local television networks appeared to show the bride and groom on the dance floor when the fire began Tuesday night, stunned by the sight of the burning debris. It wasn’t immediately clear if they were among those hurt.

“There were about to do a slow dance and then they lit up this thing for the dance which caught fire,” one injured woman told Rudaw from a hospital gurney.

Another man injured in the fire at the hospital similarly told Rudaw that the blaze started as the couple prepared for their slow dance.

“They lit up fireworks,” he said. “It hit the ceiling, which caught fire.” 

He added: “The entire hall was on fire in seconds.”

Health officials in Nineveh province raised the death toll to 114, though federal officials did not immediately update their figure of at least 100 killed.

Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr put the number of injured at 150 in that earlier statement carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

“All efforts are being made to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate accident,” al-Badr said.

Ahmed Dubardani, a health official in the province, told Rudaw that many of those injured suffered serious burns.

“The majority of them were completely burned and some others had 50 to 60 per cent of their bodies burned,” Dubardani said. “This is not good at all. The majority of them were not in good condition.”  Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire and asked the country’s Interior and Health officials to provide relief, his office said in a statement online.

Najim al-Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals.

He cautioned there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, which suggests the death toll still may rise.

Hamdaniya is on Iraq’s Nineveh Plains and under the control of its central government, though it is close to and claimed by Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish regional government.

Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish region, ordered hospitals there to also help those hurt in the blaze.

Father Rudi Saffar Khoury, a priest at the wedding, said it was unclear who was to blame for the fire.

“It could be a mistake by the event organizers or venue hosts, or maybe a technical error,” Khoury told The Associated Press. “It was a disaster in every sense of the word.”       Civil defense officials quoted by the Iraqi News Agency described the wedding hall’s exterior as decorated with highly flammable cladding that is illegal in the country.

“The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use of highly flammable, low-cost building materials that collapse within minutes when the fire breaks out,” civil defense said.

It wasn’t immediately clear why authorities in Iraq allowed the cladding to be used on the hall, though corruption and mismanagement remains endemic two decades after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire at the wedding hall and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze.

That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II, as well as multiple high-rise fires in the United Arab Emirates.

Although the Nineveh Plains, the historic homeland, was wrested back from the Islamic State group six years ago, some towns are still mostly rubble and lack basic services. Many Christians have left for Europe, Australia or the United States. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 16,2025

uspressure.jpg

Bogotá, July 16 Defying the United States threats, ministers from more than 30 nations have packed Bogotá’s San Carlos Palace to charge the Israeli regime with genocide over its October 2023-present brutal military assault against the Gaza Strip.

The dramatic display of international solidarity saw dozens of high-ranking officials from across the globe convene inside the stately palace on Tuesday, determined to hold the regime accountable for, what they unequivocally called, a “war of genocide.”

The two-day emergency summit, organized under the auspices of The Hague Group -- a coalition co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa -- had representatives, ranging from such countries as Algeria and Brazil to Pakistan and Spain, in attendance.

The participants described the drive as a coordinated effort to stop the Israeli atrocities.

Behind closed doors, ministers and envoys, meanwhile, engaged in intensive sessions aimed at drafting collective measures to pressure the regime -- steps expected to be unveiled by Wednesday’s closure.

“There is nothing to negotiate about,” insisted Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories, who addressed officials during private talks.

“Israel needs to withdraw from Gaza totally and unconditionally. Then it owes huge reparations to Palestinians for what it has done.”

‘History in the making’

Albanese did not mince words on stage either, telling the press that the Bogotá gathering might well “go down as the moment in history that states finally stood up to do the right thing.”

She called the event “the most significant political development of the last 20 months,” underscoring the unprecedented breadth of the coalition.

The alliance was set up last year with backing from Progressive International, an organization founded in May 2020 to unite, organize, and mobilize progressive forces around the world.

Soon after the onset of the convention, the US attacked the surge in multilateral momentum against the regime, its most important regional ally, which it has been providing with unprecedented political, military, and intelligence support towards further brutalizing Palestinians.

The State Department issued a tirade, accusing The Hague Group of trying to “weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas” and warning that the US would “aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies.”

Just last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio slapped sanctions on Albanese, denouncing, what he termed, her “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to push for International Criminal Court action against the Israeli regime. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” he fumed.

Inside the palace, however, the mood remained defiant.

Former US foreign affairs officer Annelle Sheline, who resigned earlier this year over Gaza, attended the summit to lend her support.

“These are sovereign states who have every right to uphold their obligations under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” she said. “This is not the weaponization of international law. This is the application of international law.”

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 4,2025

Mangaluru, July 4: In a startling turn of events, a man who claims to be a former sanitation worker in Dharmasthala village has filed a sensational complaint alleging a series of brutal murders and systematic cover-ups spanning nearly two decades.

The complainant, represented by Bengaluru-based lawyers Ojaswi Gowda and Sachin Deshpande, submitted a six-page letter to the Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police and Dharmasthala police, detailing chilling claims of being forced to dispose of multiple bodies under threat to his and his family’s life.

Police officials on Thursday confirmed receiving the complaint, stating that an inquiry would be launched and action taken based on its findings.

The case first came to light after a letter from the lawyers began circulating on social media. The letter revealed their client's intent to approach Dharmasthala Police with disclosures on “heinous crimes” committed in the region, citing a “guilt conscience” as the reason for coming forward.

According to the complaint:

The man says he worked at Dharmasthala from 1995 to December 2014.

During this time, he was allegedly coerced into burying bodies in secret, under constant threat.

In December 2014, fearing for his life, he fled with his family and went into hiding in a neighbouring state.

He recently returned to a burial site, allegedly revisiting a spot where a body was exhumed — and submitted photographs as part of his complaint.

The complaint also alleges the involvement of “influential individuals” in the killings and subsequent intimidation. The man has sought protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018, before naming those responsible.

Lawyers Ojaswi and Sachin attempted to meet SP Dr Arun K on June 27, but he was unavailable during their visit.

The allegations — if proven — could open the doors to one of the most explosive criminal investigations in the region’s recent history.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 4,2025

praveen.jpg

Mangaluru, July 4: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested a key accused, who had been living abroad for the last two years, in connection with its probe into the sensational murder of BJP leader Praveen Nettaru in Karnataka, officials said.

The accused, Abdul Rahaman, was taken into custody by the NIA team at the Kannur International Airport in Kerala on his arrival from Qatar, they said.

A total of four accused, including Rahaman and two other absconders, were chargesheeted by the NIA in the case in April this year, taking the total chargesheeted in the case to 28.

The NIA had also declared rewards for information relating to six absconders. Rahaman was carrying a reward of Rs 4 lakh for this arrest. He is the 22nd accused to be arrested in the case.

Investigation officers claim that Rahaman, on directions of PFI leadership, harboured the main assailants and others involved in the case, the agency said in a statement, adding that he fled to Qatar after the attackers were arrested.

Nettaru was killed with sharp weapons by assailants on July 26, 2022, in Bellare village of Sullia Taluk in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, the statement said.

According to NIA, the killing was part of a larger conspiracy aimed at striking terror among the people and unleashing communal hatred and unrest in the society.

The NIA, which re-registered the case on August 4, 2022, is trying to track down the remaining absconders.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.