Karbala | Rescuers found the body of an eighth person Monday night in the rubble of a Shiite shrine in central Iraq that had partially collapsed after a landslide, and announced they would stop searching for victims.
• Also read: Removed four corpses from the rubble of a Shia shrine
In the evening, Iraqi Civil Defense said it recovered the body of an eighth victim – a woman – from the rubble of Imam Alis Qattarat, a shrine near the holy city of Karbala (centre), part of whose roof collapsed after a landslide on Saturday.
In all, the rescuers said in a press release that they extracted the remains of “eight people, including five women, two men and a child” after “sixty hours of nonstop labor.”
The rescue operations “are now complete” and the sanctuary is now closed to the public, they added.
The landslide happened Saturday afternoon when part of the rock face surrounding the shrine collapsed, causing part of its roof to collapse.
“Two children and a teenager were rescued in the first few hours” that followed the landslide, the civil defense said.
According to his spokesman, Nawas Sabah Shaker, the landslide was due to “high humidity” that separated part of the rock from the rest of the wall.
This landslide caused the collapse of “about 30% of the building’s area of about 100 square meters,” he added.
responsibilities
The tragedy has aroused considerable emotions in Iraq, whose population is predominantly Shia Muslim. But the controversy boils down to the responsibilities.
“We want to know what happened, why it happened,” complained AFP Bassem Khazali, a witness whose nephew died in the accident.
Key Shia leader Moqtada Sadr, accustomed to outbursts against the Iraqi government and its political opponents, attacked “corruption” and “corruption that has again claimed civilian lives” on Sunday evening.
Imam Ali’s Qattarat is about 25 km west of the holy Shia city of Karbala and attracts thousands of pilgrims every year. It is dedicated to Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and a founding figure of Shia Islam.
Imam Ali would have stopped there with his army on the way to the Battle of Siffin in 657 and let a spring of water flow there.
However, the Shia Waqf – a religious body that manages the property of Iraq’s Shia community – claimed it “does not manage” the sanctuary and the land on which it was built.
On Facebook, Karbala Governor Nassif al-Khattabi stated that “the shrine does not belong to any particular group but to people who have been summoned” without revealing their identity or which authorities intended to question them.