Four premature babies die in hospital fire in Iraq

By ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Health officials say a fire erupted at a hospital in southern Iraq, sending smoke through a maternity ward and killing four premature babies. Iraqi health minister Saleh al-Hasnawi tells journalists at the scene that the fire at the Women and Children’s Hospital in Diwaniyiah started at a pile of debris belonging to a company working on renovations at the hospital. Al-Hasnawi says the hospital building did not burn but was filled with smoke, and that the four infants died from chest problems as a result of smoke inhalation. Some other patients suffered minor injuries.