Tag Archives: death toll

Bodies found off coast of Libya as migrant toll climbs: IOM

Migrants await rescue in dinghy

GENEVA (Reuters) – The bodies of 120 migrants believed to have been trying to reach Italy by boat from Libya have been found off the Libyan coast over the past 10 days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

“We are getting this information from Libyan authorities that we are collaborating with,” said IOM spokesman Joel Millman. The bodies had been discovered near Sabratha and had not come from previously known shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.

Mainly African migrants are taking often unseaworthy boats from Libya to Italy, gateway to Europe. Nearly 8,000 were rescued at sea between Friday to Monday on that central Mediterranean route, Millman told a briefing.

It is a longer and more perilous journey than that from Turkey to Greece, largely shut down since a deal was struck between the European Union and Turkey in March, although 174 migrants did make it by sea to Greece over the weekend, IOM said.

More than 257,000 migrants and refugees have already entered Europe by sea this year through July 27, and for the third straight year, at least 3,000 others have died, the agency said.

A total of 4,027 migrants or refugees have perished worldwide so far this year, three-quarters of them in the Mediterranean, Millman said.

The figures represents a 35 percent increase on the global toll during the first seven months of 2015, he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Death Toll in Baghdad bombing rises to 324

A man lights a candle at the site after a suicide bombing in the Karrada shopping area, in Baghdad, Iraq July 3, 2016.

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The death toll from a suicide bombing in central Baghdad on July 3 has reached 324 and might climb further, Iraq’s health minister said on Sunday.

The attack, claimed by the militant group Islamic State whose fighters government forces are trying to eject from large parts of the north and west, was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

The toll could climb further as forensic teams are still working to identify bodies, the minister, Adela Hmoud, said.

Islamic State has lost ground in Iraq since last year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi’ite

militias.

But the deadly July 3 bombing in a commercial street of the mainly Shi’ite Karrada district of central Baghdad showed it can still strike in the capital.

On July 7, the ministry put the toll at 292. But it has risen as more people, initially registered as missing, were identified as among the dead, Hmoud said.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Baghdad bombing death toll rises to 292

Iraqi women light candles as they mark the end of Ramadan at the site of a suicide car bomb

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The death toll from a suicide bombing in Baghdad this weekend has reached 292, Iraq’s Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The attack, claimed by the militant group Islamic State, which government forces are trying to eject from large parts of the north and west of the country, was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

More than 200 people were wounded in the attack in a busy shopping street in the mainly Shi’ite Karrada district of central Baghdad. About 23 of the wounded were still in hospital, health ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Rudaini told Reuters.

Earlier on Thursday, the ministry had put the toll at 281 and it rose as more people, registered as missing, were identified as dead, Rudaini said.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Louise Ireland)