Women and children were among the dead, the Health Ministry said.
While some drowned, others died in car accidents, were
electrocuted, or were trapped when their houses collapsed.
Local media reported that as many as 300 homes have been badly damaged by the floods, especially in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces. The country’s north has borne the brunt of it, and the UN office in Iraq said that the downpour had forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.An estimated 10,000 people in Salahaddin province and 15,000 people in Nineveh are in desperate need of help, including families living in displacement camps, the UN said.
In the Al-Sharqat district in Salahaddin, about 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, thousands of homes were left totally submerged by the rains.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced in statements earlier that he was establishing a “crisis cell” of security forces and local authorities to co-ordinate a response.
