BAGHDAD: War-scarred Iraq is seeing thousands of new COVID-19 cases a day but few people wear face masks and even fewer are vaccinated, sparking fears of an “epidemiological catastrophe.”
Healthcare workers say they are battling not just the pandemic but also a widespread skepticism over vaccines, borne of misinformation and public mistrust in the state.
“I don’t like the vaccine or the mask,” said Nehad Sabbah, 36, speaking on a Baghdad street and reflecting a widely held view. “I’m not afraid of getting sick.”
Even as she acknowledged the risk of catching the novel coronavirus that is now infecting some 8,000 people a day in Iraq, she stressed that “I’m not going to take the vaccine.”
Since the vaccine rollout began in March, Iraqi health authorities have fully inoculated only around 1 percent of the country’s roughly 40 million people.
Iraq — where the economy is still recovering from decades of war and insurgency and many people live in poverty — has recorded over 1.4 million COVID-19 cases and more than 17,000 deaths.
But across the capital, mask-wearing has become lax and restrictions have loosened considerably.
Sarmad Al-Qarlousi, who heads Baghdad’s Al-Kindi Hospital, was insistent that, unless far more citizens get jabbed, the country is spiraling toward “an epidemiological catastrophe.”
“We have entered the third wave and we have to be ready,” he said.
“We are trying to control the disaster, and we are advising people to take the vaccine.”
The hospital’s 54 intensive care unit beds have been fully occupied all year, and there is a long waiting list.
In one of the air-conditioned rooms of the COVID isolation ward, a woman in her late twenties was gasping for air as a ventilator aided her ravaged lungs.
“She has been here for 15 days,” said her 20-year-old sister Roqayya Abdel-Moutaleb as she gently stroked her arm. “We come regularly to support her.”
She has been taking turns with her mother to tend to her sister, while her nieces and nephews — prevented from visiting the hospital for fear of contracting the virus — fret over their mother.
Asked about her feelings about the vaccine, Abdel-Moutaleb however retorted firmly that “it’s too risky ... this vaccine isn’t safe.”
The UN World Health Organization says that the “approved COVID-19 vaccines provide a high degree of protection against getting seriously ill and dying from the disease.”
It also says on its website that they “are safe for most people 18 years and older, including those with pre-existing conditions of any kind, including auto-immune disorders.”
Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr blamed the general hesitation to get inoculated on a “misinformation campaign which preceded the arrival of the vaccine.”
Even doctors have been complicit in spreading false news. Hamid Al-Lami, a general practitioner, was arrested and banned from practicing medicine in May after asserting that the virus was curable with natural herbs.
Another rumor about vaccines which spread widely was the unfounded claim that they cause infertility.
Populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, with millions of ardent followers, initially lambasted US-manufactured vaccines but, after he received his first jab in April, registrations for the vaccine rose significantly.
SKepticism and apathy remain especially rife amid younger Iraqis, the 60 percent of the population aged under 25.
One of two young men smoking cigarettes in an upmarket Baghdad district said that “we don’t trust the government or the types of vaccines it has brought.”
Iraq has so far ordered 18 million doses of various vaccines, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech.
The Health Ministry’s Badr said that “the situation so far is under control despite the obvious increase in cases.”
He also said no cases of the highly contagious Delta variant had been recorded so far, even as it has flared in neighboring Iran and many other parts of the world.
Kholoud Al-Sarraf, dean of the pharmacology faculty at Baghdad’s Al-Esraa University, was not so optimistic and advocated a two-week lockdown to stem the rising caseload.
She also urged a stepped up effort to convince Iraqis to get vaccinated.
“People are scared,” she said. “They say they would rather catch corona, which would give them natural immunity. That’s the general mindset.”
Iraqis remain skeptical of vaccines as COVID-19 cases rise
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Iraqis remain skeptical of vaccines as COVID-19 cases rise
- Since the vaccine rollout began in March, Iraqi health authorities have fully inoculated only around 1 percent of the country’s roughly 40 million people
Syrian soldiers distance themselves from Assad in return for promised amnesty
- Lt. Col. Walid Abd Rabbo, who works with the new Interior Ministry, said the army has been dissolved and the interim government has not decided yet on whether those “whose hands are not tainted in blood” can apply to join the military again
DAMASCUS, Syria: Hundreds of former Syrian soldiers on Saturday reported to the country’s new rulers for the first time since Bashar Assad was ousted to answer questions about whether they may have been involved in crimes against civilians in exchange for a promised amnesty and return to civilian life.
The former soldiers trooped to what used to be the head office in Damascus of Assad’s Baath party that had ruled Syria for six decades. They were met with interrogators, former insurgents who stormed Damascus on Dec. 8, and given a list of questions and a registration number. They were free to leave.
Some members of the defunct military and security services waiting outside the building told The Associated Press that they had joined Assad’s forces because it meant a stable monthly income and free medical care.
The fall of Assad took many by surprise as tens of thousands of soldiers and members of security services failed to stop the advancing insurgents. Now in control of the country, and Assad in exile in Russia, the new authorities are investigating atrocities by Assad’s forces, mass graves and an array of prisons run by the military, intelligence and security agencies notorious for systematic torture, mass executions and brutal conditions.
Lt. Col. Walid Abd Rabbo, who works with the new Interior Ministry, said the army has been dissolved and the interim government has not decided yet on whether those “whose hands are not tainted in blood” can apply to join the military again. The new leaders have vowed to punish those responsible for crimes against Syrians under Assad.
Several locations for the interrogation and registration of former soldiers were opened in other parts of Syria in recent days.
“Today I am coming for the reconciliation and don’t know what will happen next,” said Abdul-Rahman Ali, 43, who last served in the northern city of Aleppo until it was captured by insurgents in early December.
“We received orders to leave everything and withdraw,” he said. “I dropped my weapon and put on civilian clothes,” he said, adding that he walked 14 hours until he reached the central town of Salamiyeh, from where he took a bus to Damascus.
Ali, who was making 700,000 pounds ($45) a month in Assad’s army, said he would serve his country again.
Inside the building, men stood in short lines in front of four rooms where interrogators asked each a list of questions on a paper.
“I see regret in their eyes,” an interrogator told AP as he questioned a soldier who now works at a shawarma restaurant in the Damascus suburb of Harasta. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to media.
The interrogator asked the soldier where his rifle is and the man responded that he left it at the base where he served. He then asked for and was handed the soldier’s military ID.
“He has become a civilian,” the interrogator said, adding that the authorities will carry out their own investigation before questioning the same soldier again within weeks to make sure there are no changes in the answers that he gave on Saturday.
The interrogator said after nearly two hours that he had quizzed 20 soldiers and the numbers are expected to increase in the coming days.
Israel accuses Pope of ‘double standards’, after Gaza criticism
JERUSALEM: Israel accused Pope Francis of “double standards” Saturday after he condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty” following an air strike that killed seven children from one family.
“The Pope’s remarks are particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7,” an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.
“Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people.”
Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency had reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the Palestinian territory, including seven children.
“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the government of the Holy See.
“I want to say it because it touches my heart.”
The Israeli statement said: “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them,” a reference to the Palestinian Hamas militants who attacked Israel and took hostages on October 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
“Unfortunately, the Pope has chosen to ignore all of this,” the Israeli ministry said.
US military strikes Houthi targets in Yemen’s capital
- Missile storage and command/control facilities hit: CENTCOM
RIYADH: The US military command in the Middle East said on Sunday that it carried out strikes against Houthi missile storage and command-and-control facilities in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
“CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden,” the command said on X, shortly after midnight local time.
The video released by the US military showed a jet taking off from a carrier.
“During the operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea.”
Videos on social media showed people fleeing large explosions in the capital, but Arab News could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.
The command said that US air and naval assets were used in the operation, including F/A-18s, adding the “strike reflects CENTCOM's ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping.”
The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, seized the capital in 2014 and have been conducting drone and missile attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in an effort to impose a naval blockade on Israel, who, for more than a year, has been carrying out a devastating war against Hamas in Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, a Houthi missile hit Tel Aviv, injuring 16 people.
Syria’s SDF says five fighters killed in strikes by Turkish-backed forces
- Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups
CAIRO: The US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said five of its fighters had been killed on Saturday in attacks by Turkish-backed forces on the city of Manbij in northern Syria.
Fighting in Manbij broke out after Bashar Assad was toppled nearly two weeks ago, with Turkiye and the Syrian armed groups it supports seizing control of the city from the Kurdish-led SDF on Dec. 9.
The SDF, an ally in the US coalition against Daesh militants, is spearheaded by the YPG — a group that Ankara sees as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups.
The United States has been mediating to stop fighting between Turkiye and the Syrian Arab groups it supports, and the SDF.
The US State Department said on Wednesday a ceasefire around Manbij had been extended until the end of the week, but a Turkish defense ministry official said a day later there was no talk of a ceasefire deal with the SDF.
In Israeli-occupied south Syria, villagers feel abandoned
- Most villagers have cloistered themselves inside their homes since the troops arrived. A few look on through windows and from rooftops
QUNEITRA, Syria: In the towns and villages of southern Syria that Israel has occupied since the overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar Assad, soldiers and residents size each other up from a distance.
The main street of the village of Jabata Al-Khashab is largely deserted as a foot patrol of Israeli troops passes through it.
Most villagers have cloistered themselves inside their homes since the troops arrived. A few look on through windows and from rooftops.
It is the same story in nearby Baath City, named for the now suspended political party that ran Syria for more than 60 years until Assad’s ouster by Islamist-led rebels earlier this month.
The town’s main street has been heavily damaged by the passage of a column of Israeli tanks.
The street furniture has been reduced to mangled metal, aand broken off branches from roadside trees litter the highway.
“Look at all the destruction the Israeli tanks have caused to our streets and road signs,” said 51-year-old doctor Arsan Arsan.
“People around here are very angry about the Israeli incursion. We are for peace, but on condition that Israel pulls back to the armistice line.”
Israel announced on December 8 that its troops were crossing the armistice line and were occupying the UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
The announcement, which was swiftly condemned by the United Nations, came the same day that the rebels entered Damascus.
Israel said it was a defensive measure prompted by the security vacuum created by the Assad government’s abrupt collapse.
Israeli troops swiftly occupied much of the buffer zone, including the summit of Syria’s highest peak, Mount Hermon.
The Israeli military has since confirmed that its troops have also been operating beyond the buffer zone in other parts of southwest Syria.
At a security briefing on Mount Hermon on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz spoke of the importance of “completing preparations... for the possibility of a prolonged presence” in the buffer zone.
He added that the 2,814-meter (9,232-foot) peak provided “observation and deterrence” against both Hezbollah in Lebanon and the new authorities in Damascus who “claim to present a moderate front but are affiliated with the most extreme Islamist factions.”
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the rebel overthrow of Assad, has its roots in Al-Qaeda and remains proscribed as a terrorist organization by several Western governments, even though it has sought to moderate its image in recent years.
On the road south from Damascus to the provincial capital Quneitra, an AFP correspondent saw no sign of the transitional government or its fighters. All of the checkpoints that had controlled access to the province for decades lay abandoned.
Quneitra’s streets too were largely deserted as residents stayed indoors, peeking out only occasionally at passing Israeli patrols.
Israeli soldiers have raised the Star of David on several hilltops overlooking the town.
HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa has said that Israel’s crossing of the armistice line on the Golan “threatens a new unjustified escalation in the region.”
But he added in a statement late last week that “the general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter new conflicts.”
That position has left many in the south feeling abandoned to fend for themselves.
“We are just 400 meters (yards) from the Israeli tanks... the children are scared by the incursion,” said Yassin Al-Ali, who lives on the edge of the village of Al-Hamidiyah, not far from Baath City.
He said that instead of celebrating their victory in Damascus, the transitional government and its fighters should come to the aid of Quneitra province.
“What’s happening here really should make those celebrating in Umayyad Square pause for a moment... and come here to support us in the face of the Israeli occupation,” Ali said.
