Rare aerial footage shows unprecedented levels of suffering in Iraq and Syria
Mourners carry the coffin of a 22-year-old victim of the suicide bombing that ripped through Karada. Photograph Sabah Arar AFP Getty Images
More bodies have been recovered from the site of a massive Islamic State suicide bombing in central Baghdad, bringing the death toll to 175, The Guardian reported officials to have said.
The staggering figure – one of the worst bombings in 13 years of war in Iraq – has cast a pall on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month. Eid is likely to be on Wednesday, July 6.
An ISIS suicide bomber struck Baghdad’s bustling commercial area of Karada late, a predominantly Shia locality, on Saturday, when many residents were spending the night out before the start of their dawn fast. Despite battlefield losses in the country, this new face of ISIS has struck terror around the globe. Police and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release the information, warned that there are still people missing and that the death toll could rise further.
On Tuesday morning, the residents of Karada held a funeral procession for a young man at the scene of the blast. An Iraqi flag draped over her shoulder, his mother led the mourners carrying his wooden casket and pounding their chests in grief. Others were seen throwing flowers on the casket, also wrapped in the Iraqi flag.
Meawnhile in a sensational end of Ramzan disclosure, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released a video on July 1, that shows homes, schools and hospitals crumbled to rubble shown in dramatic scenes captured by an ICRC drone camera-Chilling aerial footage of Ramadi, a once bustling city in central Iraq, has captured the extent of destruction caused by war.
In late December, Iraqi forces, backed by US air strikes, announced the recapturing of Ramadi, which had been lost to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in May 2015. The US-led coalition carried out more than 600 air strikes in the area from July to December last year.
A new six-minute clip, released by the International Red Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) shows homes in Ramadi turned to rubble, along with flattened school, destroyed hospitals and damaged ambulances.
Click on the link for video: http://imedia8uk.http.internapcdn.net/imedia8uk/icrc/AV506N_Drone_Iraq_President_466.mp4
Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, was once home to half a million people [Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters]
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, has said in the video that levels of suffering in Syria and Iraq have reached unprecedented levels.
“Hundreds of thousands killed; millions on the move; families torn apart,” states Maurer. “Even as Ramadan comes to an end, many, many ordinary people are living in abject fear and terrifying uncertainty. A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding.”
Rare aerial footage gathered by ICRC shows the once prosperous Ramadi in central Iraq now in tatters – a ghost town. Explosive remnants of war are scattered across the city and most people are too afraid to return to homes. It will take months, if not years, to make the city safe again and to rebuild homes and damaged water and electric systems.
In both Syria and Iraq, an estimated 10 million are internally displaced and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. As the holy month of Ramadan comes to an end, president Maurer, called on those people with influence over the conflict to show vision and courage and a respect for the fundamental value of human dignity.
Maurer says: “The people need leaders who believe in humanity; who protect, homes, schools and hospitals; who protect civilians and treat people they capture with respect. And we stand ready to talk to anyone – or to act as an intermediary so that more help, more assistance, can be delivered. And more people protected from violence.”
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have been providing aid to people on all sides of the conflicts. The ICRC has helped provide clean drinking water and improved sanitation for more than 6 million Syrians. In Iraq, food, drinking water and medical assistance has been delivered to more than a million people.