Tragedy Strikes One Week After Opening: Over 60 Killed in Iraq Shopping Mall Fire

Over 60 Dead, Including Women and Children, in Iraq Shopping Mall Fire
Tragedy Strikes Just One Week After Mall Opening

A tragedy occurred in eastern Iraq when a fire broke out at a shopping mall, killing more than 60 people, including women and children. The shopping mall, which had opened just a week earlier, is a five-story building featuring a variety of restaurants and a supermarket.

Shopping mall in Iraq on fire. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News.

According to Yonhap News on July 18, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced in a statement on July 17 (local time) that at least 61 people had died in the fire that broke out the previous night at a shopping mall in Kut, the capital of Wasit Province in eastern Iraq. Most of the victims died from suffocation. Fourteen of the bodies were so badly burned that their identities have not yet been confirmed.

Iraq's state news agency reported that firefighters who responded to the emergency rescued more than 45 people trapped inside the building, but more than 10 people remain missing, so the death toll could rise further.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated, "We have also quickly dispatched a medical team equipped to support the treatment of the injured," and instructed the Minister of Interior to "immediately conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire and take all necessary measures." Muhammad al-Mayahi, the governor of Wasit Province, declared three days of mourning. He said, "There were suspicious circumstances," and added, "We will announce the preliminary results of the investigation to the public within 48 hours." Legal proceedings have also begun against all parties involved in the incident, including the owners of the building and the shopping mall.

According to the Associated Press, inadequate building standards in Iraq have often been cited as a major cause of fires. In a hospital fire in Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar Province in southern Iraq in July 2021, where more than 90 people died, highly flammable and illegal low-cost cladding materials were identified as a factor that worsened the damage. In 2023, more than 100 people died in a wedding hall fire in Hamdaniya, Nineveh Province, after low-cost ceiling panels caught fire.