Street vendors have been active in various Iraqi provinces, where they have been teaching in these professions, for years, and subsist from them by selling iron to scrap factories.
The mayor of Al-Zubayr district, Abbas Maher, said in a press statement, “The concerned authorities collect war remnants from time to time for the purpose of preparing them and detonating them later, and during that there were about 10 empty containers, except for one of them that contained more than 100 cluster bombs.”
He added that “some street vendors stole the container containing the cluster bombs that were to be detonated in the southern Rumaila desert,” noting that “the vendors thought that the containers were empty, so they took them to an unknown destination.”
He stressed that “these sellers roam the factories and deserts to obtain iron and sell it on scrap factories, without realizing the seriousness of this matter.”
In turn, a security source stated that “the local police in the province received a call to alert during the coming hours, in anticipation of a disaster and placing these bombs in an unsafe situation, which would cause a humanitarian disaster.”
The source, who declined to be named, added to “Sky News Arabia” that “the cities surrounding the site of the accident witnessed an extensive spread, and a thorough inspection of cars and wheels, in search of street vendors, as well as calls through local media and communication channels, seeking to reach them.” “.
No comment has been issued by the security forces about the incident so far, amid fears expressed by citizens in the city of a disaster by detonating these bombs with ignorance of the sellers or their lack of knowledge of the safe way to reach the official authorities, or their fear of being accused and prosecuted.
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