Children among 7 killed in accident on Baghdad-Diyala road

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven members of a single family, including three children, were killed in a car accident on the Baghdad-Diyala road on Friday.

The accident happened at dawn when a privately-owned vehicle collided with a heavy-duty Scania truck near the entrance to Baghdad, a security source in Diyala told Rudaw.

A funeral ceremony for the victims was held on Friday in the Jdeidat al-Shatt district, northeast of Baghdad. Video footage showed a large procession with mourners carrying the seven coffins to their final resting place.

“The accident happened when the truck swerved from one lane to another,” a relative of the victims told Rudaw. Honar Hamid, whose mother, brother and his three children, and two sisters-in-law were the victims, explained that “the family was returning from a celebration in Baghdad” when the accident occurred. 

The truck driver is in custody and is being questioned, spokesperson for the Diyala Police Command Colonel Haitham al-Shammari confirmed to Rudaw.