{"id":23180,"date":"2018-11-25T16:23:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T16:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23180"},"modified":"2018-11-25T16:23:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T16:23:55","slug":"heavy-rainfall-in-iraq-kills-at-least-21-displaces-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23180","title":{"rendered":"Heavy rainfall in Iraq kills at least 21, displaces thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At least 21 people have died and tens of thousands displaced by torrential rains that have battered Iraq<\/a> over two days, according to health officials and the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Seif al-Badr, spokesperson for Iraq’s health ministry, told the AFP news agency on Sunday that\u00a0women and children were among the dead.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some had drowned due to floods<\/a>, but others had died in car accidents, were electrocuted or were trapped when their houses collapsed.<\/p>\n

At least 180 more were injured, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq’s north has borne the brunt of the heavier-than-average rainfall<\/span><\/a>, and the United Nations’ Iraq office said the downpour had forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.<\/p>\n

An estimated 10,000 people in the province and 15,000 people in Nineveh are in desperate need of help, including families living in camps for internally displaced persons, the UN said<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“Losses are still being assessed, but initial accounts from flooded areas include the destruction of homes, livestock and household items,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n

Several people have reportedly died due to flash floods in Shirqat town in Salahadin province. #Iraq<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/VvAe3Mwd1A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Baxtiyar Goran (@BaxtiyarGoran) November 23, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the al-Sharqat district in Salahaddin, about 250km north of the capital, Baghdad, thousands of homes were left totally underwater by the rains.<\/p>\n

In Mosul<\/a>, the heavy storms submerged two floating bridges along the Tigris river, which bisects the city.<\/p>\n

They were the only way to move between Mosul’s eastern and western halves, after all its bridges were bombed during last year’s months-long operation to retake the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a>, also known as ISIS) armed group.<\/p>\n

On Friday, new Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi<\/a> announced the establishment of a “crisis cell” of security forces and local authorities to coordinate a response.<\/p>\n

The ministries of electricity, oil and trade had also indicated their willingness to help.<\/p>\n

Iraq is one of the hottest countries on earth but when heavy rains do hit, they can result in casualties because of deteriorating public infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In 2015, 58 Iraqis were killed in floods and cases of electrocution due to intense downpours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 21 people have died and tens of thousands displaced by torrential rains that have battered Iraq over two days, according to health officials and the United Nations. Seif al-Badr, spokesperson for Iraq’s health ministry, told the AFP news agency on Sunday that\u00a0women and children were among the dead. Some had drowned due to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}