Jordan’s foreign minister holds talks in Iran amid regional tensions

BAGHDAD: Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze.

An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.

The Corniche Hypermarket mall in the town of Kut in Wasit province, a five-story building containing restaurants, shops and a supermarket, had opened just days before the blaze, which officials said broke out late Wednesday on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics.

Civil defense crews were able to rescue 45 people from the burning building. Officials said that most of those who died were trapped on the upper floors.

While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy.

Provincial Gov. Mohammed Al-Miyahi has said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits.

The provincial council of Wasit on Thursday voted to form committees to carry out building safety inspections and to suspend the director of Kut municipality and the director of occupational safety until investigations into the fire are complete.

Al-Miyahi said Thursday that legal complaints had been filed against the building owner and shopping center owner, who could not be reached for comment. The governor said in a press conference that the son of the shopping center owner and other members of his family were among the victims in the blaze.

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.

GENEVA: The head of the United Nations human rights office called on Friday for Syria’s interim authorities to ensure accountability and justice for killings and rights violations in the southern city of Sweida.

Syria’s government sent troops this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell fighting between Bedouins and Druze, but the violence grew until a ceasefire was declared.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it had received credible reports of widespread rights violations during the fighting.

These included reports of summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of private property by security forces and individuals linked to Syria’s interim authorities, as well as other armed elements including Druze and Bedouins.

“This bloodshed and the violence must stop, and the protection of all people must be the utmost priority, in line with international human rights law,” OHCHR High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement.

At least 13 people were unlawfully killed in one recorded incident on July 15 when affiliates of the interim authorities opened fire at a family gathering, the OHCHR said. Six men were summarily executed near their homes the same day.

“My Office has received accounts of distressed Syrians who are living in fear for their lives and those of their loved ones,” Turk said.

Israel carried out airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday and also hit government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority with followers in Lebanon and Israel.

Turk shared his concern following reports of civilian casualties following Israeli airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa in the southwest, and on the center of Damascus.