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DERNA, Libya — The UN warned Monday that disease outbreaks could bring "a second devastating crisis" to Libya a week after a huge flash flood shattered the coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths.

Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization "are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation", the United Nations said.

The flash flood that has killed nearly 3,300 people and left thousands more missing came after the war-scarred North African country was lashed by the hurricane-strength Storm Daniel on September 10.

Tens of thousands of traumatised residents are homeless and badly in need of clean water, food and basic supplies amid a growing risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dehydration and malnutrition, UN agencies have warned.

Libya's disease control centre banned citizens in the disaster zone from drinking water from local mains, warning that it is "polluted".

Rescue teams from several European and Arab countries kept up the grim search for bodies in the mud-caked wasteland of smashed buildings, crushed cars and uprooted trees.

The waters submerged a densely populated 6-square-kilometre area in Derna, damaging 1,500 buildings of which 891 were totally razed, according to a preliminary report released by the Tripoli government based on satellite images.

One bereaved Derna resident, Abdul Wahab al-Masouri, lamented what has become of his city.

“We grew up here, we were raised here... But we’ve come to hate this place, we’ve come to hate what it has become,” he said.

“The buildings, the neighbourhood, the villagers, the sheikhs... the wadi has returned to the state it was 1,000 years ago. People live in caves, the city looks dead, barren, there is no life left.”

Bulldozers cleared roads from caked mud, including at a mosque as a foul smell permeated the air and a woman prayed for the children and grandchildren killed by the flooding.

Bodies and disease 

Amid the chaos, the true death toll remained unknown, with untold numbers swept into the sea.

Soldier Hamza Al-Khafifi, 45, described to AFP finding unclothed bodies washing up on the coastline where “bodies were stuck between rocks”.

The health minister of the divided country’s eastern administration, Othman Abdeljalil, has said 3,283 people were now confirmed dead in Derna.

Libyan officials and humanitarian groups have warned, however, that the final toll could be much higher, with thousands still missing.

Emergency response teams and aid have been deployed from countries including Jordan, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Five members of a Greek rescue team were killed when their vehicle collided with a car carrying a Libyan family on the road from Benghazi to Derna on Sunday, official said. Three members of the family also died.

Egypt dispatched the “Gamal Abdel Nasser” Mistral helicopter carrier to the eastern Tobruk military base across the border to serve as a field hospital with over 100 beds, Egyptian media reported.

France said it had set up a field hospital in Derna.

On Monday, the United Nations, which has launched an emergency appeal for more than $71 million, said nine of its agencies were delivering aid and support to survivors, and working to prevent the spread of diseases.

The European Union on Monday said it was releasing 5.2 million euros (around $5.5 million) in humanitarian funding for Libya, bringing total EU aid so far to more than 5.7 million euros.

In the face of the tragedy, rival Libyan administrations appear to have set aside their differences for now after calls from aid groups and several countries to collaborate in the aid effort.

Libya has been split between two rival governments — a UN-backed administration in the capital Tripoli and another in the disaster-hit east, since the overthrow and killing of leader Muammar Qadhafi in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

The International Organisation for Migration’s Libya chief Tauhid Pasha posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the aim now was to channel all authorities “to work together, in coordination”.

On Monday the Tripoli-based government said it launched work to build a temporary bridge that would span the river that cuts through Derna.

The massive flooding caused two upstream river dams in Derna to rupture, sending a tidal wave crashing through the centre of the city of 100,000 and sweeping entire residential blocks into the Mediterranean.

UN experts have blamed the high death toll on climatic factors as the Mediterranean region has sweltered under an unusually hot summer, and on the legacy of Libya’s war that has depleted its infrastructure, early warning systems and emergency response.

DOHA — Arch-foes the United States and Iran each released five detainees on Monday in a prisoner swap deal that also gives Tehran access to $6 billion in long-frozen oil funds.

The five Americans freed by Iran, including a businessman arrested in 2015, landed in Doha just before 5:40 pm (14:40 GMT) on a Qatari jet, hours after the unblocked funds were credited to Iranian accounts in Qatari banks.

The five were greeted on the tarmac before walking in the setting sun to a terminal building, three of them with their arms round each other's shoulders.

One of them praised US President Joe Biden for ignoring the political backlash and taking the "incredibly difficult decisions" that freed them.

"Thank you President Biden for ultimately putting the lives of American citizens above politics," Siamak Namazi said in a statement.

Two of the Iranian detainees arrived in Qatar, Iranian media said. The other three released by the United States have opted to remain there or in a third country, Tehran said.

The trigger for the exchange was the release of the $6 billion in funds, frozen by US ally South Korea under sanctions against Iran, to the Iranian accounts.

Washington has denied the $6 billion is a ransom payment, insisting the money will be used for humanitarian purposes.

“We hope to have total access to the Iranian assets today,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference in Tehran earlier on Monday.

“The prisoner exchange will take place on the same day and five Iranian citizens imprisoned in America will be released.”

As the prisoners were released, Biden granted clemency to the five Iranians and announced sanctions against Iran’s ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country’s intelligence ministry.

The sanctions were imposed over alleged deceit over the disappearance of Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in mysterious circumstance and is presumed dead.

Damages claim 

Iran generated the $6 billion through oil sales to South Korea, which blocked the funds after the United States under former president Donald Trump reimposed sanctions as he withdrew from a landmark nuclear accord.

Iran’s central bank governor said Iran would seek damages from South Korea for withholding the funds. The equivalent of 5.57 billion euros ($5.95 billion) was deposited in six Iranian accounts with two Qatari banks on Monday, he said.

“We’re making a complaint on behalf of Iran against South Korea for not giving access to these funds and the reduction in value of these funds in order to receive damages,” Mohammadreza Farzin said on state TV.

The five Americans of Iranian descent, all considered Iranian nationals by Tehran, which rejects dual nationality, were released to house arrest when the deal was agreed last month.

They included Namazi, a businessman arrested in 2015 on spying charges which his family has rejected.

The others are wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, venture capitalist Emad Sharqi, and two others who wished to remain anonymous.

Last week, the official IRNA news agency identified the five Iranian prisoners. They include Reza Sarhangpour and Kambiz Attar Kashani, both accused of violating US sanctions against Tehran.

A third prisoner, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, was detained at his home near Boston in 2021 and charged with being an Iranian government agent, according to US officials.

The two others, Mehrdad Moein Ansari and Amin Hasanzadeh, were said to have links to Iranian security forces.

 Nuclear dispute 

Biden’s administration has insisted Iran will only be allowed to use the unfrozen funds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

Iran, which has been deeply hostile to the US since the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the pro-Western monarch, has denied any restrictions on use of the funds.

Iran’s Kanani has insisted the money will allow Tehran to “purchase all non-sanctioned goods”, not just food and medicine.

Biden took office with hopes of restoring the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement, under which Iran promised to constrain its contested nuclear work in return for sanctions relief.

But months of talks failed to produce a breakthrough.

Prospects for resolving the dispute sank further after protests broke out in Iran last year following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the country’s Islamic dress code for women.

The release of the prisoners comes just days after the first anniversary of her death, and as Biden and Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, are in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, although they are not expected to meet.

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Three members of Iraqi Kurdistan's anti-terrorism forces were killed on Monday in a drone strike that hit an airfield near Sulaimaniyah, the autonomous northern region's anti-terrorism services said in a statement.

"Unfortunately the bombing killed three of our Peshmerga comrades from the anti-terrorist services" and wounded three others, the statement said, without identifying those behind the attack.

The drone strike targeted the Arbat airfield, south of Sulaimaniyah, from which planes used for pesticide spraying take off.

A "thorough investigation" has been launched into this "terrorist crime committed by foreign servants and local spies", the anti-terrorism services said.

"To protect the investigation, we will preserve the confidentiality of information. In the future we will reveal the truth to the people of Kurdistan," it added.

Attacks against Kurdistan's security forces are rare.

On Sunday, a Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq killed at least four members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), including a senior official, the Iraqi Kurdish authorities said.

Turkey has set up dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 25 years to fight against the group.

In April 2023, Iraq accused Turkey of carrying out a “bombardment” in the vicinity of the airport at Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan’s second-largest city.

The strike took place while US soldiers and the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-allied coalition dominated by Kurds, were at the airport.

The Turkish army rarely comments on its strikes in Iraq but routinely conducts military operations against PKK rear bases in autonomous Kurdistan as well as Sinjar district.

Iran has also carried out strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan.

A year ago, Tehran repeatedly bombed positions of various Iranian Kurdish opposition groups accused of involvement in protests that erupted in Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman.

AMIZMIZ — In her earthquake-hit Moroccan town, Zina Mechghazzi has improvised a sink by placing a pink bucket and a bar of soap on the dusty ground amid the ruins.

"I haven't taken a shower in seven days," said the woman from Amizmiz at the foot of the High Atlas range, about 60 kilometres southwest of Marrakech. 

"I've only washed my armpits and changed my clothes."

Over a week since a 6.8-magnitude quake devastated parts of central Morocco, many worry that the dire living conditions and poor hygiene spell new threats for the survivors.

The disaster killed nearly 3,000 people and injured thousands more when it hit in Al Houz province, south of the tourist hub Marrakesh, on September 8. 

Many survivors have stayed close to their ravaged villages and now sleep in improvised shelters and simple tents provided by Morocco's civil protection service.

Later, Mechghazzi was kneading dough to make bread, sitting on a stool next to a stove out in the open.

When she was finished, she washed the flour off her hands with untreated water from a dirty five-litre jug, shrugging that "we have to adapt". 

With only a few houses left standing and habitable in Amizmiz, functioning bathrooms and toilets have become a luxury, and they are often overcrowded.

Mechghazzi pointed to an empty lot nearby where a stand of olive trees now provide the only, limited privacy as a child was relieving himself behind a tent.

'Rain and cold' 

During the day, temperatures in Amizmiz still top 30ºC, but nights bring biting cold and damp in the mountain area.

"Winter is coming, the situation is difficult, especially with the children," said Rabi Mansour, holding a four-month-old baby, her fourth child.

"Problems caused by rain and cold will be a challenge."

A pregnant woman, who only gave her first name, Hassna, and who is just days away from giving birth, said she was terrified.

"I never thought I would give birth in these conditions," she said. 

"I don't have much water, it's hard to go to the bathroom, and I'd rather not even think about how I'm going to manage. It stresses me out so much." 

A few tents away, first aid was being provided to people with injuries or sickness.

"We have a foot infection, a tooth abscess, a stomach problem, and others are here for medication," said one responder, working under an awning serving as a clinic. 

For those villagers who were badly injured or disabled in the quake, the question of hygiene facilities and health services is especially important.

Said Yahia has been in a hospital in Marrakesh since he lost both of his legs, after a rock crushed them while he tried to save his son from their home. 

"I live in a remote place in the mountains," he told AFP from his hospital bed, dreading the thought of going back home. 

"I don't know what will become of me." 

'Disease vector' 

Morocco is expected to request more aid soon from the United Nations to help it recover and rebuild, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

An especially pressing need will be the provision of clean water, which was already in short supply in some areas before the quake.

Contaminated water is "a major vector of disease, with a whole range of water-related illnesses from diarrhoea to cholera," Philippe Bonnet, the director of emergencies for French charity Solidarites Internationales, told AFP by phone. 

Poor hygiene can also leads to skin problems, and the cold brings respiratory diseases like bronchitis, he said.

The charity has sent a team to Morocco with equipment to test the water, among other things. 

Some latrines have already been constructed by organisations in Tafeghaghte, seven kilometres south of Amizmiz, and charities have said they may also send mobile latrines.

Bonnet stressed the urgent need for emergency latrines.

"If the water is unfit for consumption because the source has been contaminated, which is a risk with open-air latrines, the impact is very significant," he said.

VIENNA — The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Saturday condemned the "disproportionate and unprecedented" move by Iran to withdraw accreditation from several of its most experienced inspectors.

Iran's foreign ministry said in response that the move was in retaliation for "political abuses" by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.

But IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that this would seriously hamper the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry out its work.

"Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran informed me of its decision to withdraw the designation of several experienced Agency inspectors assigned to conduct verification activities in Iran" under an existing agreement, said Grossi.

"This follows a previous recent withdrawal of the designation of another experienced Agency inspector for Iran," his statement added.

"With today's decision, Iran has effectively removed about one third of the core group of the Agency's most experienced inspectors designated for Iran," said Grossi.

In 2015, major world powers reached a deal with Iran under which Tehran would curb its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions.

But that started to unravel in 2018 when then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions.

Tehran in turn stepped up its nuclear programme, while continuing to deny it harbours ambitions of developing a nuclear weapons capability.

Efforts to revive the deal have been fruitless so far.

 ‘Arrogance’ 

The United States and the so-called E3 group, France, Germany and the United Kingdom — are threatening to call for a new resolution against Tehran at an IAEA board meeting.

“Iran persists in its deliberate refusal to engage earnestly with the Agency,” the US and E3 group said in a midweek joint statement.

If Iran did not fully abide by its obligations the Board would have to be prepared to take further action to support its Secretariat and hold Iran accountable, they added.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani responded to the IAEA statement Saturday.

“Three European countries and the United States abused the space of the [IAEA’s] Council of Governors for their own political purposes with arrogance and with the aim of destroying the atmosphere of cooperation.

“Of course, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its positive cooperation within the framework of the agreements made, emphasizing the necessity of the agency’s neutrality,” he added.

In his statement Saturday, Grossi said the experts affected had “unique knowledge in enrichment technology” and had previously conducted essential verification work at Iranian enrichment facilities under IAEA safeguards.

While the move was formally permitted under an existing agreement, Iran had done it “in a manner that affects in a direct and severe way the ability of the IAEA to conduct effectively its inspections in Iran,” said Grossi.

“I strongly condemn this disproportionate and unprecedented unilateral measure which affects the normal planning and conduct of Agency verification activities in Iran and openly contradicts the cooperation that should exist between the Agency and Iran,” he added

Without effective cooperation from Tehran, the agency would not be able to “provide credible assurances that nuclear material and activities in Iran are for peaceful purposes,” Grossi stressed.

DERNA, Libya — A week after a wall of water rushed through the Libyan coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths, the focus turned Sunday to caring for survivors of the disaster.

Estimates of the number of lives lost vary widely.

The most recent official death toll, from the health minister of the eastern-based administration, Othman Abdeljalil, is that 3,166 people were killed.

But according to a United Nations report released on Sunday, the toll from Derna alone has risen to 11,300.

Citing the Libyan Red Crescent, the UN Office (OCHA) for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs added that another 10,100 people were still missing in the devastated city.

"These figures are expected to rise in the coming days and weeks as search-and-rescue crews work tirelessly to find survivors," the OCHA report said.

Aid is now arriving in the North African country as the world mobilises to help emergency services cope with the aftermath of the deadly flood.

At least 40,000 people have been displaced across northeastern Libya, according to the International Organisation for Migration, which cautioned the actual number is likely higher given the difficulty accessing the worst-affected areas.

Two dams upstream from Derna burst a week ago under the pressure of torrential rains from the hurricane-strength Storm Daniel.

The dams had been built to protect the port city of 100,000 people after it was hit by significant flooding in the mid-20th century.

The banks of a dried riverbed or wadi running through the city centre had been heavily built on, and last week’s torrent swept everything before it as it rushed towards the Mediterranean.

A week on, bodies are still being found.

A rescue crew from Malta’s Civil Protection Department discovered a beach strewn with dead bodies on Friday, the Times of Malta newspaper reported.

International aid is arriving from the United Nations, Europe and the Middle East, offering some relief to the thousands of survivors.

The aid includes essential medicines and emergency surgical supplies, as well as body bags to allow corpses to be moved.

Tents, blankets, carpets, hygiene kits and food have been flown in, along with heavy machinery to help clear the debris.

Questions being asked 

The devastating flooding brought by Storm Daniel was exacerbated by poor infrastructure in Libya, which was plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qadhafi in 2011.

Questions are being asked as to why the disaster was not prevented, when cracks in the dams have been known about since 1998.

Prosecutor general Al Seddik Al Sour has announced an investigation into the circumstances leading to the collapse.

Like much of Libya’s crumbling infrastructure, the two dams that had been built to hold back water from Derna fell into disrepair during years of neglect, conflict and division in chaos-ridden Libya.

The country is currently ruled by two rival administrations that have battled for power since Qadhafi’s ousting.

With tens of thousands of people displaced, aid organisations have warned of the risks posed by leftover landmines and other unexploded ordnance, some of which the UN said has been shifted by floodwaters into areas previously declared clear.

The risks of water-borne diseases such as cholera are also high, according to aid groups.

Outside Derna, the flooding took an additional 170 lives, the UN’s report said.

The National Centre for Disease Control reported that at least 55 children were poisoned as a result of drinking polluted water in Derna.

To assist the hundreds of thousands of people in need, the UN has launched an appeal for more than $71 million.

“We don’t know the extent of the problem,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday, as he called for coordination between Libya’s two rival administrations, the UN-backed, internationally recognised government in Tripoli, and one based in the disaster-hit east.

The scale of the devastation has prompted shows of solidarity, as volunteers in Tripoli gathered aid for the flood victims.

Survivors in Derna are glad to be alive, even as they mourn the loss of loved ones.

“In this city, every single family has been affected,” said Derna resident Mohammad Al Dawali.

Seir Mohammed Seir, a member of the security forces, spoke of a three-month-old girl who lived through the tragedy in Derna.

“Her entire family died, she was the only one who survived.”

ERBIL, Iraq — A Turkish drone strike killed at least four members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Sunday, authorities in the autonomous Kurdistan region said.

"A senior official from the Kurdistan Workers' Party and three fighters were killed when a Turkish army drone targeted their vehicle in the Jal Mir region on Mount Sinjar," Iraqi Kurdistan's counter-terrorism services said in a statement.

The PKK has been waging a deadly insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and the conflict has repeatedly spilt across the border into northern Iraq.

The Turkish army rarely comments on its strikes in Iraq but routinely conducts military operations against PKK rear-bases in autonomous Kurdistan as well as Sinjar district.

Ankara and its Western allies classify the PKK as a "terrorist" organisation.

Sinjar, the heartland of the Yazidi minority, is also home to a local Yazidi movement affiliated with the PKK — the Sinjar Resistance Units.

In a statement on Sunday, they confirmed the death of "three of our comrades" after a drone strike, which they attribute to Turkey, targeted their vehicle.

Ankara has set up dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 25 years to fight against the group.

At the end of August, seven PKK members were killed in northern Iraq in two drone strikes that coincided with a visit by Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, to Iraq.

Both the federal authorities and the Kurdistan regional government have been accused of tolerating Turkey’s military activities to preserve their close economic ties.

Although statements from Baghdad occasionally condemn Turkey’s violation of Iraqi sovereignty and the impact of the strikes on civilians.

In the summer of 2022, strikes attributed to Ankara on a tourist resort in northern Iraq killed nine people, mainly vacationers from the country’s south. Turkey denied any responsibility and accused the PKK of the attack.