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NASIRIYAH, Iraq — Grief and anger gripped the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Tuesday after fire swept through a temporary COVID isolation unit, killing at least 64 people and injuring dozens.

The devastating blaze on Monday evening at the southern city's Al Hussein Hospital, which medics said was fuelled by oxygen canisters exploding, was the second such tragedy in Iraq in three months.

"Sixty-four [bodies] were retrieved and 39 identified and handed over to their families," a source at the provincial forensic science department told AFP.

"Medical teams and relatives of victims are finding it difficult to identify the rest of the corpses," the source said, adding that the toll could rise as more bodies were feared buried under the rubble.

An official tally listed in local media said 39 of the victims so far identified were women.

The blaze also injured 100 people.

"We heard their screams but we couldn't help them much," said activist Hisham Al-Sumeri, who had helped in the relief effort.

He accused the authorities of negligence.

Smoke was still rising from the charred debris of the temporary building on Tuesday, as grieving relatives looked on.

"A patient comes in looking for treatment and he ends up being carried out in a coffin," said Abou Nour Al Shawi, an elderly onlooker.

He pointed out the frailty of the structure, which had collapsed quickly in the flames.

“This place is not even fit for animals,” he said.

As the first funerals were held, indignant protesters vented their outrage at provincial authorities they blame for the deaths, an AFP correspondent said.

In Al Dawaya, east of Nasiriyah, a joint funeral was held for six members of a single family who had died in the inferno.

In Al Nasr, north of the city, mourners laid to rest two brothers and two sisters who perished in the flames.

Other funerals were held in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where mourner Yunus Saleh blamed politicians for the tragedy.

“My family lost five members and a sixth wasn’t found. We couldn’t identify his body,” he said.

“Where else would something like this happen? Where? The [political] parties burned them.”

Hundreds of young protesters shut down private hospitals in Nasiriyah to pressure the authorities to open the doors of a new public hospital.

Last month, Prime Minister Mustafa Khademi inaugurated the Turkish-built facility.

But the more than 400-bed facility has yet to open to patients.

On Tuesday, Kadhimi declared three days of national mourning for the “martyrs” of Nasiriyah.

The city is seen as the heart of a nationwide anti-government protest movement that broke out in late 2019.

“The state must take the necessary measures... to confront the corrupt,” one young protester told AFP.

He said those responsible must be held “accountable... in transparent investigations that show people that it [the state] is serious about putting an end to these tragedies”.

‘Persistent corruption’ 

President Barham Salih on Tuesday blamed the “catastrophe” at Al Hussein Hospital on “persistent corruption and mismanagement that undervalues the lives of Iraqis”.

Salih recalled an April fire at a Baghdad COVID-19 hospital which killed 82 people and injured 110.

It too was sparked by an explosion of badly stored oxygen cylinders.

The April fire triggered widespread anger, resulting in the suspension and subsequent resignation of then health minister Hassan Al Tamimi.

Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for 13 officials, including the outgoing director of Dhi Qar province’s health department.

Pope Francis, who paid a historic visit to Iraq in March, issued a statement saying he was “deeply saddened” by Monday’s tragedy.

And in Iraq’s neighbour Iran, the foreign ministry spokesman expressed condolences and offered humanitarian and medical help.

Iraq, whose oil-dependent economy is still recovering from decades of war and international sanctions,  has recorded more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and more than 17,000 deaths.

Much of its health infrastructure is dilapidated, and investment in public services has been hamstrung by endemic corruption.

ADEN — Yemen's currency, the riyal, has sunk to historic lows in recent days, in a new threat to the war-torn country which is already on the brink of famine.

In the government-controlled southern capital of Aden, the dollar is trading at more than 1,000 riyal, the highest rate since the war began in 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the northern capital of Sanaa.

The currency has lost some 6 per cent in the south in the past three weeks. Meanwhile, the riyal trades at about 600 riyals to the dollar in rebel-controlled areas, which stretch across much of the country's north.

A source at the central bank in Aden told AFP that it was taking action to prop up the currency, amid growing social discontent in areas controlled by the government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.

"Inspection teams affiliated with the Yemeni central bank, in cooperation with prosecutors and the police, are carrying out a wide-ranging campaign against exchange rate manipulators," the source said.

Yemenis were already up in arms over the high cost of living in a country where more than 80 per cent of the population depends on international aid.

Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, is struggling through what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Famine could become part of the country's "reality" in 2021, UN Development Programme chief Achim Steiner told AFP in March after a donor conference raised $1.7 billion in aid for the country — just half its target.

The UN has also emphasised that Yemen's crisis is an "income famine" where food is unaffordable, more than a situation where food is not available.

Yemeni economist Mostafa Nasr said the decline in the riyal has been driven by escalating violence in parts of Yemen, including a fierce battle for Marib city, the government's last piece of territory in the north.

"A unified monetary policy is a priority to achieve stability for the Yemeni riyal," Mostafa Nasr told AFP.

The Houthis have established their own central bank in Sanaa and are seeking to strengthen their monetary and financial independence.

BEIRUT — Carrying mock coffins, relatives of those killed in Lebanon’s port blast scuffled with police on Tuesday outside the residence of caretaker interior minister Mohammad Fahmi whom they accuse of stalling a probe.

The detonation of a huge stockpile of fertiliser at the port last August 4 killed more than 200 people and wrecked huge swathes of the capital.

A blast investigation launched in the wake of the tragedy has yet to hold any officials to account, with the victims’ families charging that political interference has derailed the process.

On Tuesday, dozens gathered outside Fahmi’s Beirut apartment after he rejected a request by the judge investigating the blast to question Abbas Ibrahim, head of the General Security bureau, one of the country’s top security agencies.

“By refusing to lift Abbas Ibrahim’s legal immunity, the interior minister is standing between us, the relatives of blast victims, and justice,” said Paul Najjar, who lost his three-year-old daughter Alexandra to the explosion.

“He is killing us a second time,” Najjar said, referring to Fahmi.

Less than a month before the first anniversary of the tragedy, the relatives tore off all the gates at the entrance to Fahmi’s apartment building, an AFP correspondent said.

They displayed portraits of the deceased in a makeshift shrine and piled up white coffins just outside the block, the correspondent said.

“These are the coffins of our children,” Najjar said.

The demonstration sparked a stand-off with police who tried to push families back.

Last month, rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a UN investigation into the explosion in light of Lebanon’s stalled probe.

Lead judge Tarek Bitar is demanding that parliament lift the immunity of ex-finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zaiter and ex-interior minister Nohad Machnouk.

Deputy speaker Elie Ferzli said parliament’s administration and justice committee on Friday decided to “request all evidence available in the investigation, as well as all documents that prove suspicions” before immunity is waived.

However, Bitar this week rejected parliament’s request, a judicial source told AFP.

In February, Bitar’s predecessor as lead judge in the probe was removed by a court, which questioned his impartiality because his home was damaged in the explosion.

The judge had in December issued charges against caretaker premier Hassan Diab and three former ministers for “negligence and causing death to hundreds”, triggering outrage from politicians.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel said on Monday it had expanded the fishing zone off Gaza and would allow additional imports into the blockaded Palestinian territory following "recent security calm".

Israel regularly restricts fishing and imports for Gazans in response to unrest, including during an 11-day conflict in May that saw Israel launch hundreds of air strikes on the enclave and its Islamist rulers Hamas fire thousands of rockets at Israel.

"In light of the recent security calm... the fishing zone in the Gaza Strip will be extended from 9 to 12 nautical miles," said a statement from the Israeli military branch responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories (COGAT).

The statement added that imports of medical equipment, fishing supples, certain industrial materials and textiles will also be allowed into Gaza.

Gazan agricultural products and textiles have been cleared for export, COGAT said, noting the new measures are contingent on "the continued preservation of security stability".

There has been sporadic unrest since a ceasefire ended the May conflict, with incendiary balloons launched from Gaza and Israeli reprisal air strikes, but no casualties have been reported.

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2007, the year Hamas took power in the strip.

BEIRUT — The judge investigating last year's deadly Lebanon port blast on Monday rejected a request by MPs for more evidence before immunity for three ex-ministers can be waived, a judicial source said.

Hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser exploded on the dockside at Beirut port last August 4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and ravaging swathes of the capital.

Afterwards, it emerged that officials had known about the explosive substance being stored there unsafely for years.

Coming less than a month before the first anniversary of the tragedy, Monday's move may mean a new stand-off, with fears that the probe could be derailed by political interference.

Earlier this month, lead judge Tareq Bitar said he had demanded that parliament lift the immunity of ex-finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zaiter and ex-interior minister Nohad Machnouk.

Bitar said he was looking at possible charges of "probable intent to murder" and "negligence".

Deputy speaker Elie Ferzli said parliament's administration and justice committee on Friday decided to "request all evidence available in the investigation, as well as all documents that prove suspicions".

He said the committee would reconvene once it had received a reply, to decide whether or not to waive immunity.

On Monday, the judicial source said no further documents would be forthcoming.

"The investigating judge rejected parliament's request... In an official letter he explained that he had already handed over all the documents that needed to be handed over," the source told AFP.

Protests

Lawyer and activist Nizar Saghieh said the committee's request on Friday went against the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature, and "violated the confidentiality of the investigation".

"They're just trying to buy time," he alleged.

On Monday, relatives of victims of the massive blast protested outside Machnouk's and Zaiter's homes, demanding that their immunity be lifted, the official ANI news agency reported.

Last month, rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a UN investigation into the explosion in light of the stalled investigation.

In February, Bitar's predecessor as lead judge in the probe was removed by a court, which questioned his impartiality because his home was damaged in the explosion.

The judge had in December issued charges against caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for "negligence and causing death to hundreds", triggering outrage from politicians.

Rights activists condemned the court ruling as another example of the country's entrenched political class placing itself above the law.

Diab stepped down after the blast, but has stayed on as caretaker premier.

The economic crisis that started in the autumn of 2019, sparking mass street protests, has deepened over the past year.

Foreign donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid to the Lebanese people, but stopped short of offering any assistance to the state itself.

BAGHDAD — War-scarred Iraq is seeing thousands of new COVID cases a day but few people wear face masks and even fewer are vaccinated, sparking fears of an "epidemiological catastrophe".

Healthcare workers say they are battling not just the pandemic but also a widespread scepticism over vaccines, borne of misinformation and public mistrust in the state.

"I don't like the vaccine or the mask," said Nehad Sabbah, 36, speaking on a Baghdad street and reflecting a widely held view. "I'm not afraid of getting sick."

Even as she acknowledged the risk of catching the novel coronavirus that is now infecting some 8,000 people a day in Iraq, she stressed that "I'm not going to take the vaccine".

Since the vaccine rollout began in March, Iraqi health authorities have fully inoculated only around 1 per cent of the country's roughly 40 million people.

Iraq — where the oil-reliant economy is still recovering from decades of war and insurgency and many people live in poverty — has recorded over 1.4 million COVID cases and more than 17,000 deaths.

But across the capital, mask-wearing has become lax and restrictions have loosened considerably.

Sarmad Al Qarlousi, who heads Baghdad's Al Kindi Hospital, was insistent that, unless far more citizens get jabbed, the country is spiralling towards "an epidemiological catastrophe".

"We have entered the third wave and we have to be ready," he said. "We are trying to control the disaster, and we are advising people to take the vaccine."

'Misinformation campaign' 

The hospital's 54 intensive care unit beds have been fully occupied all year, and there is a long waiting list.

In one of the air-conditioned rooms of the COVID isolation ward, a woman in her late twenties was gasping for air as a ventilator aided her ravaged lungs.

"She has been here for 15 days," said her 20-year-old sister Roqayya Abdel-Moutaleb as she gently stroked her arm. "We come regularly to support her."

She has been taking turns with her mother to tend to her sister, while her nieces and nephews — prevented from visiting the hospital for fear of contracting the virus — fret over their mother.

Asked about her feelings about the vaccine, Abdel-Moutaleb however retorted firmly that "it's too risky... this vaccine isn't safe".

The UN World Health Organisation says that the "approved COVID-19 vaccines provide a high degree of protection against getting seriously ill and dying from the disease".

It also says on its website that they "are safe for most people 18 years and older, including those with pre-existing conditions of any kind, including auto-immune disorders".

Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman Saif Al Badr blamed the general hesitation to get inoculated on a "misinformation campaign which preceded the arrival of the vaccine".

Even doctors have been complicit in spreading false news. Hamid Al Lami, a general practitioner, was arrested and banned from practicing medicine in May after asserting that the virus was curable with natural herbs.

Another rumour about vaccines which spread widely was the unfounded claim that they cause infertility.

Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, with millions of ardent followers, initially lambasted US-manufactured vaccines but, after he received his first jab in April, registrations for the vaccine rose significantly.

'People are scared' 

Scepticism and apathy remain especially rife amid younger Iraqis, the 60 per cent of the population aged under 25.

One of two young men smoking cigarettes in an upmarket Baghdad district told AFP that "we don't trust the government or the types of vaccines it has brought".

Iraq has so far ordered 18 million doses of various vaccines, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech.

The health ministry's Badr told AFP that "the situation so far is under control despite the obvious increase in cases".

He also said no cases of the highly contagious Delta variant had been recorded so far, even as it has flared in neighbouring Iran and many other parts of the world.

Kholoud Al Sarraf, dean of the pharmacology faculty at Baghdad's Al Esraa University, was not so optimistic and advocated a two-week lockdown to stem the rising caseload.

She also urged a stepped up effort to convince Iraqis to get vaccinated.

"People are scared," she said. "They say they would rather catch corona, which would give them natural immunity. That's the general mindset."

DAMASCUS — Steep bread and diesel price hikes went into force in government-held parts of war-torn Syria on Sunday, bringing more pain for civilians in a long-running economic crisis.

Damascus has repeatedly raised fuel prices in recent years to tackle a financial crunch sparked by the country's decade-long civil war and compounded by a spate of Western sanctions.

The price of diesel fuel nearly tripled and the price of bread doubled on Sunday, according to the official SANA news agency, only days after Damascus announced a 25 per cent increase in the price of petrol.

"This was all expected and now we fear further increases in the price of... food and medicine," Damascus resident Wael Hammoud, 41, told AFP while he waited for more than thirty minutes to hail a cab to take him to work.

The price hikes coincided with a decree issued by President Bashar Al Assad on Sunday that increases public sector salaries by 50 per cent and sets the minimum wage at 71,515 Syrian pounds per month ($28 at the official rate), up from 47,000 pounds ($18).

In a second decree, Assad raised public sector and military pensions by 40 per cent, according to SANA.

A price list published by the state news agency on Saturday night showed one litre of diesel fuel will now cost 500 pounds, up from the 180 pounds users in most sectors were paying previously.

Mustafa Haswiya, of the state-run Syrian Company for the Storage and Distribution of Petroleum Products, said 80 per cent of Syria's hydrocarbon needs are purchased from abroad using foreign currency.

“It was necessary to raise prices in order to reduce the import bill,” SANA quoted him as saying.

The price of subsidised bread doubled to 200 Syrian pounds. The state-run Syrian Foundation for Bakeries said that the rising price of diesel fuel contributed to the increase, according to SANA.

Diesel fuel in Syria is used to power vehicles and private generators that run for up to 20 hours per day in some areas to supplement an ailing power grid hampered by fuel shortages.

The pro-government Al Watan daily on Sunday said the diesel fuel hike will lead to “an increase in the price of transportation within and across provinces” by more than 26 per cent. The agriculture and industrial sectors will also see production costs rise, it noted.

The cost of heating homes will also climb by 178 per cent, according to Al Watan.

An economist in Damascus who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the government will continue to raise prices as the crisis deepens.

“As long as there is no money entering the treasury, the price increases will continue,” he said.

The latest price hikes came nearly two weeks after the government in neighbouring crisis-hit Lebanon raised fuel prices by more than 35 per cent to combat shortages that authorities there blame in part on smuggling to Syria.

The provision of basic services and staple goods in Syria has been battered by the country’s civil war, which began in 2011 with government repression of protests.

In rebel-held northwestern Syria, neighbouring Turkey, a key backer of anti-government forces there, has sought to plug the gap, building flour mills and supplying power.