Explosion in refugee camp leaves casualties, southeast of Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Seven persons were killed and injured during the blast, which took place in a refugee camp, southeast of Mosul, a security source from the province said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Shafaq News, the source said, “a victim and six wounded people is the preliminary estimates of the blast in the camp of Turkish Kurds, in Makhmur town, southeast of Mosul.”

The source indicated two stories behind the blast. “The first one is the presence of a booby-trapped vehicle and the second is a blast from a weapon stash inside the camp,” he said.

Makhmur refugee camp hosts around 2700 families, estimated at 12,500 persons, who were displaced from Turkey. They are supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They resorted to Kurdistan since mid-nineties.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

A total of 117 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 264 injured due to terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in November, according to the monthly count recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 201 civilian casualties. Salahaddin Governorate followed, with 24 killed and 60 injured, and Kirkuk had 12 killed and 28 injured.