HAMDANIYA, Iraq - The harrowing and tragic deaths of 22 people from one single family during the heartbreaking wedding inferno in Nineveh province's Hamdaniya town over the weekend has echoed across the country.
"This is my sister. This is my father. This is my mother. This is another sister of mine. This is my wife. She is missing," Fuad Silewa, a member of the family that lost 22 members in total, sighed while sobbing and holding their photographs. "I am grateful for God [on all occasions]."
He went on to introduce more family members who died of suffocation during the tragic inferno: "This is my brother's wife. Yesterday, I received [from health authorities] their dead and burned bodies. They have all died of suffocation. This sister had come back from abroad to change her atmosphere by visiting us. Thank you, God."
Over a hundred people lost their lives when a deadly fire engulfed a wedding hall in Hamdaniya after the roof’s flammable plastic ceiling caught fire when fireworks were ignited from the floor.
An estimated 1,000 were at the wedding party. As soon as they had noticed fireballs dropping from the ceiling of the hall, they en masse rushed to evacuate from the only exit door - the back kitchen door - with frightened attendants unable to open the main door.
Bitres Silewa, is another member of the same grand family that recounted the heart-wrenching massive loss of loved ones at once.
"Imagine, when you go back home and you see your father is no longer there, your mother is no longer there, your sister is no longer there, your sister-in-law is no longer there," Silewa said. "Two of my brothers' wives died. Four children [in our family] died. My sister who had come back from the US to attend this wedding, died. Who could stand what we are going through due to this catastrophe?"
Hamdaniya is one of Iraq’s only Christian-majority districts, located in the Nineveh Plains near Mosul, a historic Assyrian region. Like many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, it was taken over by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists during their brazen sweep of northern Iraq, where they declared a so-called “caliphate” and inflicted grave atrocities on minority groups, including Christians.
The Assyrian Christian towns were retaken by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in 2017 when ISIS was driven out of the area. Hamdaniya was visited by Pope Francis during his historic visit to Iraq in 2021.
