(17 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS –
Kut, Iraq – 17 July 2025
1. Wide of emergency responders at burnt mall in eastern Iraq
2. Various of fire-damaged mall exterior
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Jalal Al-Shaty, eyewitness and local journalist:
"A fire broke out on the second floor, and some families on the ground floor were able to escape, but others perished. This place lacks occupational safety measures, and I don’t know how it was approved to open. Therefore, we hold accountable all those who approved this building, especially since the residents have objections to it."
4. Wide of security force vehicles at scene
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Jalal Al-Shaty, eyewitness and local journalist:
"So far, the number is a frightening one. The announced figure is over 60, but I believe it is more than that because there are many victims, and considering the (ongoing) celebration in such a large mall, I don’t think the number is 60, it’s more."
6. Close of damage on side of building
7. Wide of burnt mall
8. Wide of building, security force personnel and vehicles
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Abbas Ismail, eyewitness:
"The entire reason (for the fire) is the funds of the regulatory authorities in the province. This electricity started a small fire, then it developed and reached several floors. The young people are gone, and the remaining families have passed away, turning into ashes. They are still searching for the remaining ones."
10. Wide of emergency responders
11. Various wides of security forces
12. Mid of damaged mall
STORYLINE:
Witnesses of a fire that engulfed a newly opened shopping mall in eastern Iraq have questioned the building’s safety.
More than 60 people, including children, died in the blaze in the city of Kut, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
Accordi ng to the Interior Ministry, civil defense teams rescued more than 45 people trapped when the fire broke out late Wednesday at the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, a five-story shopping center that had opened only a week earlier.
Jalal Al-Shaty, an eyewitness and a local journalist, said the building lacks occupational safety measures.
"I don’t know how it was approved to open, " he said, adding that "we hold accountable all those who approved this building, especially since the residents have objections to it."
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq.
In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Mayyeh said the cause of the fire in Kut was under investigation and that legal cases were filed against the building owner and shopping center owner. He did not specify what the charges were.
The results of the preliminary investigation will be released within 48 hours, he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that he had directed the interior minister to go to the site of the fire to investigate and take measures to prevent a recurrence.
AP video shot by Ali Jabar.
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