Zarif condoles Iraq over deadly blaze at Baghdad hospital

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has extended his condolences to the Iraqi government and nation after scores of people were killed and injured when a huge fire broke out inside a coronavirus intensive care unit of a hospital in the capital Baghdad.

"I extend my sincere condolences to the brotherly government and people of Iraq and the families of the victims of the painful and tragic incident at Ibn Khatib Hospital in Baghdad. I ask God Almighty for mercy for the martyrs of this incident and immediate healing for the wounded," the FM wrote in an Arabic tweet.

Reports indicates that the fire sparked by an oxygen tank explosion killed at least 82 people and injured 110 at the hospital treating COVID-19 patients, an Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman said on Sunday, revising up the earlier casualty count.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also has offered condolences to the Iraqi government and people, especially the families of the victims.

The fire erupted on Saturday at the Ibn Khatib hospital in the Diyala Bridge area.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi declared three days of national mourning.

SS