29 killed in Iraq hotel fire
A fire in a five-storey hotel in northern Iraq killed 29 people including foreigners, police and hospital officials said today.
Police chief Brigadier General Najim-al-Din Qadir said an electrical short caused the fire that injured another 22 people in Sulaimaniyah.
The head of the health services in the city, Rekwt Mohammed, confirmed the death toll.
Four children and four women were among the dead in the Suma hotel from a blaze that began late on Thursday, said Gen Qadir, adding that the victims included Bangladeshis, several people from African countries and at least one Canadian.
At least some of the victims were believed to have worked with foreign oil companies in Iraq’s north, which has become a major site for oil exploration by international companies.
Sulaimaniyah is 160 miles north east of Baghdad, and is the second biggest city in Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region.
