In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water

Iraqi Kurds fill container with portable water distributed by a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Iraqi Kurds fill container with portable water distributed by a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water
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An Iraqi Kurd youth fills a water tank with portable water distributed by a mobile tanker (unseen), as summer temperatures soar in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water
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Iraqi Kurds fill container with portable water distributed by a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water
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An Iraqi Kurd fill an water tank and a large container with portable water distributed by a mobile tanker (unseen), as summer temperatures soar in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water

In Iraq’s summer, residents of Kurdistan’s Irbil ache for water
  • Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, referring to the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates

IRBIL, Iraq: The taps have run dry, and the wells are almost empty. In the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, 80-year-old Babir hasn’t bathed in weeks and impatiently waits for trucked-in water deliveries.
“There is nothing worse than not having water,” said Babir, who gave only his first name, in his modest house in Irbil’s Darto suburb.
As in several other densely populated areas of Irbil and its suburbs, Babir and his neighbors rely on groundwater as their primary water source.
But for years, they have dreaded summer, when relentless drought, a lack of wells and power outages that bring pumps to a halt leave them cut off the supply of water.
For everything from bathing to watering plants, cooking and washing, they have been forced to depend on trucked-in water.
Usually “we bathe once every fortnight,” said Babir, dressed in traditional Kurdish sarwal trousers.
From the roof of his house, he shouted for a water truck as it drove up into the street, then hurried downstairs to request a refill for his home.
This time, the truck belonged to a local aid group. When such assistance is unavailable, the retiree has to pay from his meagre pension or rely on family for water and other essentials.
Over the years, residents of several districts have taken to the streets many times to demand solutions, but Babir said appeals to officials had fallen on deaf ears. He said he was considering moving “to a place with water.”

Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, referring to the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates. But the rivers’ water levels have plummeted and the UN classifies the country as one of the most impacted by some effects of climate change.
Authorities blame the drought as well as dams built upstream in neighboring Turkiye and Iran.
Irbil relies on 1,240 wells dotted across the city alongside the Ifraz water station that draws from the upper Zab River, which has its source in Turkiye and joins the Tigris in Iraq.
Its governor, Omed Khoshnaw, told reporters earlier this month that “more than 25 percent of wells have dried up this year,” adding that Irbil should rely less on groundwater.
Amid the crisis, the city’s local authorities say they have allocated 1.5 billion Iraqi dinars ($1.1 million) to help solve it, including by digging new wells and providing power via generators and the electricity grid.
Local official Nabz Abdul Hamid said that power outages have heavily impacted pumps for wells in residential areas.
“We have now provided an uninterrupted electricity supply to most of the wells,” he told AFP, adding that officials were working to fix the broader problem including by improving the Ifraz plant supply.

In the Darto district, one person skillfully maneuvered the aid truck’s hose as a torrent of water gushed into a tank.
A young girl waited to fill plastic bottles while other children joyfully splashed water on their faces, finding relief from the relentless heat.
But when it comes to washing, Surur Mohamad, 49, said that for anything more than basic clothes he goes to a nearby village where they have a steady water supply.
Trucked-in water from aid organizations “is not a solution,” he said, adding that overcrowding has put further pressure on the water system while poor pipe infrastructure has exacerbated the problem.
“The government must find radical solutions as relying solely on wells” is no longer viable, especially considering the drought, he said.
His neighbor, Mahya Najm, said the lack of water had stopped her children and young families from visiting her.
“We cannot wash, cook or even receive guests,” she said.
“We are in dire need of water. This is not a life,” she added.

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Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels

Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
Updated 14 September 2024
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Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels

Salvagers launch new attempt to tow an oil tanker blown up by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
  • EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion

DUBAI: A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a European Union naval mission said Saturday.
The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.
The mission has “been actively involved in this complex endeavor, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation,” the EU said.
A phone number for the mission rang unanswered Saturday.


The Sounion came under attack from the Houthis beginning Aug. 21. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later planted explosives aboard the ship and detonated them. That’s led to fears the ship’s 1 million barrels of crude oil could spill into the Red Sea.
The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. One of the sunken vessels, the Tutor, went down after the Houthis planted explosives aboard it and after its crew abandoned it due to an earlier attack, the rebel group later acknowledged.
Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.


Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet

Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet
Updated 31 min 55 sec ago
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Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet

Syria’s Assad names ex-minister Jalali to form cabinet

CAIRO: Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday.
The new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July.
Al-Jalali served as communications minister from 2014-2016. He has been subject to EU sanctions. 
since 2014 for his “responsibility for the regime’s violent repression of the civilian population.”
According to UN figures, at least 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 from an uprising against Assad’s rule. 


Gaza rescuers say 11 from one family killed in Israeli strike

Gaza rescuers say 11 from one family killed in Israeli strike
Updated 14 September 2024
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Gaza rescuers say 11 from one family killed in Israeli strike

Gaza rescuers say 11 from one family killed in Israeli strike
  • The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike hit a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning and killed 11 members of a single family, including women and children.
“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli air strike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, he said.
“Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing,” Bassal said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.
Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the Hamas-run territory overnight, killing at least 10 people.
Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an air strike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said.
Three others were killed in a strike in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Yunis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.
The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 captives during the attack, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. The count includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths. The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.


Iran successfully launches satellite into space

Iran successfully launches satellite into space
Updated 14 September 2024
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Iran successfully launches satellite into space

Iran successfully launches satellite into space
  • The Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60kg and it reached a 550km orbit in space
  • Testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite, report says

TEHRAN: Iran Saturday sent a research satellite into orbit with a rocket built by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The report said the Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and successfully reached in 550-kilometer (341 miles) orbit in space. It said testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite.
IRNA said land stations received signals from the satellite, too.
It said the satellite-carrier rocket Qaem-100, using solid fuel, was designed and made by the Guard aerospace division. Iran says it has 13 more satellite launches in a row.
Though Iran has long planned to send satellites into orbit, this is the first launch under reformist President Masoud Pezezhkian after his hard-line predecessor Ebrahim Raisi died in a May helicopter crash.
In January Iran said it successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket.
The program is seen by the West as part of the improvement of Tehran’s ballistic missiles. The launch also comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.


Iran successfully launches satellite into space

Iran successfully launches satellite into space
Updated 14 September 2024
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Iran successfully launches satellite into space

Iran successfully launches satellite into space
  • The Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and it successfully reached a 550-kilometer orbit in space
  • Testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite

TEHRAN: Iran Saturday sent a research satellite into orbit with a rocket built by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The report said the Chamran-1 satellite has a weight of 60 kilograms and successfully reached in 550-kilometer (341 miles) orbit in space. It said testing space hardware and software is the main mission of the satellite.
IRNA said land stations received signals from the satellite, too.
It said the satellite-carrier rocket Qaem-100, using solid fuel, was designed and made by the Guard aerospace division. Iran says it has 13 more satellite launches in a row.
Though Iran has long planned to send satellites into orbit, this is the first launch under reformist President Masoud Pezezhkian after his hard-line predecessor Ebrahim Raisi died in a May helicopter crash.
In January Iran said it successfully launched three satellites into space with a rocket.
The program is seen by the West as part of the improvement of Tehran’s ballistic missiles. The launch also comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a regional conflict.
The United States has previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October.