26 Iraqis among 32 killed in Syria accident
BAGHDAD: At least 26 Iraqis were among those killed in a Syrian highway accident, in which a fuel truck collided with passenger buses and other cars, Iraqi’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Ahmad Al Sahhaf said at least 16 Iraqis were also injured in what he described as a “regretful” traffic accident, and not a militant attack. He said the bodies will be transported to Iraq.
Syrian state media quoted local officials saying at least 32 were killed in the accident and 77 were injured.
Iraqi politicians called for an investigation, saying the passengers were pilgrims on their way to visit shrines in Damascus, which has been largely protected from the ongoing war. But such convoys have previously come under attack from armed groups.
Syria’s Interior Minister Mohammed Khaled Rahmoun, who visited the area outside the capital of Damascus late on Saturday, told reporters faulty brakes apparently caused the driver to lose control of the fuel truck.
He said at least 15 other vehicles were damaged.
A video from the scene of the crash showed a number of badly mangled vehicles, damaged passenger buses with broken windshields and twisted frames, while forklifts worked to remove them from the highway.
Syria’s infrastructure has been devastated by the ongoing civil war, which enters its tenth year next week.
Separately, a war monitor reported that an Iranian commander tasked with guarding a Shiite shrine south of the Syrian capital has been shot dead south of the Syrian capital.
Farhad Dabirian was killed on Friday in the Sayyida Zeinab neighbourhood outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, identifying him as a commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran’s Fars news agency said that Dabirian
had been “martyred,” without specifying his rank or whether he was a member of the IRGC.
It said he was tasked with guarding a Shiite shrine south of the Syrian capital.
Iran has deployed personnel from the IRGC in Syria to support President Bashar Al Assad.
Both Fars and the Observatory said Dabirian had participated in battles against the Daesh group in the desert town of Palmyra.
Syrian troops backed by Russian jets took back the ancient town in 2017.