The death toll of a hospital dedicated to Covid-19 in Baghdad continues to rise.

"82 people were killed and 110 injured", torn from their respirator, asphyxiated by fumes or charred, according to a latest report Sunday from the Ministry of the Interior.

The tragedy earned the Minister of Health a suspension.

It all started in the night from Saturday to Sunday with the explosion of oxygen cylinders "stored without respecting security conditions", according to doctors at the Ibn al-Khatib hospital.

Then, the flames devoured for hours on non-fireproof false ceilings under which patients on ventilators were brutally torn from their beds.

"It only took three minutes for the fire to gain most of the floors," said Civil Defense.

Three days of national mourning

The toll is also heavy because the firefighters did not immediately arrive at the hospital, in the agricultural and remote periphery of Baghdad. “We felt an explosion. There were between 140 and 150 people in the hospital. We saw the fire and we were able to save no one ”, recounts Bakr Kazem in tears, accompanying his father's coffin. “Most of the victims died because they were displaced and deprived of ventilators. Others were suffocated by smoke, ”according to the Civil Defense.

Since the tragedy, the hashtag "Resignation of the Minister of Health", which has not been subscribed to since the fire, is at the top of the keywords on Twitter in Iraq.

Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi, who proclaimed three days of national mourning and awarded 10 million dinars (about 5,700 euros) to each victim's family, answered halfway.

He "suspended" and "made available to investigators" the Minister of Health Hassan al-Tamimi.

The same sanction was applied to the governor of Baghdad and to the head of Health for the east of the capital.

The director of the hospital and the heads of security and technical maintenance at Ibn al-Khatib were called in for questioning.

Hezbollah is building up the pressure

"The results of the investigation will be presented to the government within five days," according to a statement from the Prime Minister's office. The head of government knows that he faces in ambush pro-Iran who keep attacking him: again Sunday evening, the most radical, the Hezbollah brigades, demanded the resignation of his government. Moustafa al-Kazimi replied on Twitter that it was necessary to "avoid political games around this national disaster".

The anger comes from attributing the fire to negligence, which goes hand in hand with the endemic corruption in the country, as noted by President of the Republic Barham Saleh.

“Ibn al-Khatib's tragedy is the result of years of undermining state institutions through corruption and mismanagement,” he tweeted.

The UN mission in Iraq, for its part, expressed its “shock”, while Pope Francis called for “praying” for the victims.

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