Bathaa still searching for victims’ remains

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: The people of al-Bathaa, a city in the province of Thi-Qar, have not become sober yet from a shock four days after the “big explosion” that ripped through their area on June 10. No one thought the Grim Reaper would pay them a visit to use his scythe to mow dozens of lives and leave painful scars on hundreds of residents of this small southern town lying close to the Saudi desert highway. The deadly car bomb blast, which killed 26 civilians and wounded more than 60 others, revealed a tragedy for dozens of inhabitants of al-Bathaa, 60 km south of al-Nasseriya, the capital city of Thi-Qar province, which used to boast stable security conditions during the past years. In the morning of that bloody day, 2-year-old Furat insisted to escort her mom to the souk (market) on her standard daily outing to buy food and other things for the household. For Furat, the souk means candy and sweets. Furat’s mother was inside the souk during the explosion that turned the place topsy-turvy with metal and small concrete pieces everywhere and the bodies of victims lying scores of meters away from her amidst screams and shouts in which Furat’s crying over her disappeared mom has drowned. The blast has claimed the lives of two women, two under-five children and 22 men, according to statistics by Thi-Qar agencies. A 1982-made black Caprice was parked by two strange persons clad in Arabian garments a few minutes before the blast. They even argued with the traffic policeman Iyad, one of the blast victims, who asked them to remove their vehicle and park elsewhere. They told him they would just come back quickly only to enter a nearby alley and disappeared, according to eyewitnesses. “The blast was appalling and reflected a state of loose security conditions the town has been experiencing for six months now. The town is no longer safe; as darkness descends, travelers heading for the northern districts in the town are vulnerable to armed robberies,” Haider Saneed, a member of al-Bathaa local council, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Once a paradigm of observance of religious precepts and social norms, the town has witnessed a few days ago a rape of a girl child. Moreover, drug dealing has become a phenomenon,” Saneed complained. However, Maj. General Sabah al-Fatlawi, the Thi-Qar police chief, said the tiny small populated district of al-Bathaa “can’t stand intensive security presence”. “We have 120 policemen and two checkpoints here, though,” he added. He said two person, one of them believed involved in the explosion and a brother of a prominent member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network, were arrested, noting five officers and 20 police personnel were under investigation over this blast. Teacher Shahir, the headmaster of a school adjacent to the blast site, revealed that the town has been in chaos after the explosion. “After the incident, the local residents gathered at the site. Even the women were out in search of their sons and relatives,” he told IraqiNews.com. A crying Furat, whose small dress was soaked in blood, was taken by a man called Nasser to his house in a nearby alley to calm her down and wash her blood-stained clothes. Busy enough with Furat, Nasser just forgot to ask his wife about his seven-year-old son Ahmed. The remains of a child who has always been with Ahmed were found on the blast scene. Nasser searched for his son but could not find him. One day later a green grocer found the left leg apparently of a child over his store. No one knew whether that leg belonged to a missing Ahmed. AmR (I) 1