Iraq: Arson likely behind deadly maternity ward fire

AFP reports:

A fire that killed 13 children in an Iraqi maternity ward was apparently started intentionally, the health ministry’s spokesman said on Sunday.

Ahmed al-Rudeini had previously said the Wednesday fire at Yarmuk Hospital, one of the main such facilities in Baghdad, had been started by an electrical fault.

But an investigation found “the presence of flammable materials at the site, and this of course indicates the occurrence of arson,” he said, also raising the death toll from the blaze to 13 from 12.