baghdad
Maternity ward fire kills 12 newborn babies
A fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies, government officials said Wednesday, a deadly blaze that was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring.
By morning, grief-stricken fathers searched for their missing newborns in vain while angry relatives gathered outside the Yarmouk hospital in western Baghdad blamed the government for the tragedy. Some of the babies who perished were prematurely born, a doctor at the hospital said.
The hospital director, Saad Hatem Ahmed, said the blaze broke out late Tuesday night and that the initial investigation indicated it was an electrical fire. Ahmed said 29 female patients and eight babies were moved from the ward and transferred to another hospital.
washington
U.S.: Efforts got 45,000 enemies off battlefield
The top U.S. commander for the fight against the Islamic State group said that the military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield.
Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland said Wednesday that the number and quality of IS fighters is declining and could be as low as about 15,000. He says it’s difficult to determine accurate numbers, but that estimate is lower than the 19,000 to 25,000 fighters that officials cited earlier this year.
MacFarland says that Syrian Democratic Fighters could defeat IS in Manbij, Syria, in a matter of weeks.
athens, greece
67 migrants hiding in sailboat picked up
Greece’s coast guard picked up 67 migrants found hiding in a sailboat crossing the Aegean Sea, authorities said Wednesday, at a point further west than that usually preferred by those crossing from the nearby Turkish coast.
The 60 men, five women and two children were picked up eight nautical miles northeast of the island of Amorgos. The coast guard transported them to the island of Leros, where a migrant processing center has been set up.
juba, south sudan
S. Sudan rejects U.S. plan for U.N. troops
South Sudan on Wednesday rejected a U.S. proposal for the U.N. Security Council to send 4,000 troops to the East African country to restore calm, saying it “seriously undermines” its sovereignty and threatens a return to colonialism.
Government spokesman Michael Makuei said the proposal gives the U.N. the ability to govern. The proposal also calls for a vote on an arms embargo on South Sudan if U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports within a month that authorities have blocked the regional force.
The Security Council could vote Friday on the proposal.
ankara, turkey
Kurdish attacks leave at least 12 people dead
A wave of Kurdish rebel attacks targeting police and soldiers in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast killed at least 12 people on Wednesday, as Turkey was still dealing with the aftermath of a failed military coup attempt that threatened the government.
Officials said rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, launched simultaneous bomb attacks targeting police vehicles in Diyarbakir and Kiziltepe, killing eight people, while four soldiers were killed in a separate attack near the border with Iraq hours earlier.
