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Local officials and electric maintenance staff are blamed for the tragedy in Qaraqosh. Locals criticise the official version of events, pointing the finger at Rayan the Chaldean who wants to use the incident to replace local officials with loyalists. People are demanding an independent commission of enquiry. Patriarch Sako slams “the corruption that is devastating the nation
The fire broke out Tuesday night in a wedding hall near the village of Qaraqosh in Hamdaniya, an area about 20 miles southeast of Mosul. Christians have lived in the area for nearly 2,000 years, but fled the Islamic State group in 2014, and only in the last couple of years have begun to return and raise families again in these small Nineveh Plain villages, local officials said.
At least 100 people died and more than 150 more were severely burned after a fire raced through a crowded wedding hall in the northern Iraqi town of Nineveh Plain on Tuesday, officials said.