Official: Any other survivors will be left to die in rubble

Above: A Yazidi man in Kahtaniya today, one of two Yazidi villages that were hit by the multiple fuel-truck bombings earlier this week.

A SENIOR official in the Iraqi region that suffered the country’s worst suicide attacks suggested this weekend that any remaining survivors trapped beneath rubble would be left to die.

Colonel Najim Abdullah, the governor of Tal Afar, said there were insufficient resources to continue searching for people among the ruins of Qahtaniya and Adnaniya, two villages devastated by multiple truck bombings last Tuesday.

Up to 200 people are still thought to be unaccounted for, taking the death toll past 500. The victims were mainly members of the Yazidi minority sect, which has made its home around the Sinjar mountains, close to the border with Syria.

“We do not have the real potential to tackle the problem,” said Abdullah. “If we are not even able to provide residents with ration cards, how can we save them now under the rubble?”

Read the rest at the Times of London

Related Link:
Iraq says bomb toll reaches 400; U.S. says between 175 and 200

Related Link:
Rescuers search for survivors of bombings in north as toll climbs to 250 dead, 350 wounded in dealiest incident ever

Related Link:
At least 175 dead, 200 wounded in multiple fuel truck bombings in northern Iraq

Related Link:
Perspective: An Iraqi massacre rooted in interfaith love

Related Link:
Mosul gunmen execute 23 Yazidi in retaliation for stoning death