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BABIL, Iraq - Local police in Iraq's Babil province late Monday announced the arrest of a suspect accused of burning a family of six including father, mother, and four children, one of whom was only a year-and-a-half old toddler in Madhatiya district.
The incident took place in Madhatiya's Al-Zahra neighborhood in the early hours of Sunday.
According to the Babil Province Police Department, the suspect was apprehended on Monday, under 24 hours after the incident, in Baghdad, and now he is in police custody in Babil.
The lone survivor of the barbaric incident is Qamar, a nine-year-old child who happened to be staying at his grandfather’s house on the night of the murder.
The shock and horror of the situation caused a public outcry across the province.
A relative claimed that the victims were stabbed prior to their bodies being burned while they were sleeping.
"First he killed them and then burned them. Abu Qamar had no problem with anyone, not even his wife and children. He was a peaceful man. He used to go to work and return to his home. He could never harm anyone," Ahmed al-Doshan, a cousin of Abu Qamar who was killed along with his wife and children, told Rudaw on Monday.
The bodies of the victims were sent to the forensic medicine department in the capital, Baghdad, as new elements and details regarding the circumstances of the incident continue to be uncovered by the ongoing investigation.
"My daughter [the mother] spent the evening at my house and she went back to her house around 11 pm with her children. Only her eldest son told her, 'I will stay here at my grandfather’s house.' They went back home, and this tragedy happened. They were burned," Maktuf Ajaj, Qamar's grandfather said.
In tears and reeling from the shock of the tragic murder of his entire family, Qamar is calling on the Iraqi government and local authorities to bring the perpetrator to justice.
The incident took place in Madhatiya's Al-Zahra neighborhood in the early hours of Sunday.
According to the Babil Province Police Department, the suspect was apprehended on Monday, under 24 hours after the incident, in Baghdad, and now he is in police custody in Babil.
The lone survivor of the barbaric incident is Qamar, a nine-year-old child who happened to be staying at his grandfather’s house on the night of the murder.
The shock and horror of the situation caused a public outcry across the province.
A relative claimed that the victims were stabbed prior to their bodies being burned while they were sleeping.
"First he killed them and then burned them. Abu Qamar had no problem with anyone, not even his wife and children. He was a peaceful man. He used to go to work and return to his home. He could never harm anyone," Ahmed al-Doshan, a cousin of Abu Qamar who was killed along with his wife and children, told Rudaw on Monday.
The bodies of the victims were sent to the forensic medicine department in the capital, Baghdad, as new elements and details regarding the circumstances of the incident continue to be uncovered by the ongoing investigation.
"My daughter [the mother] spent the evening at my house and she went back to her house around 11 pm with her children. Only her eldest son told her, 'I will stay here at my grandfather’s house.' They went back home, and this tragedy happened. They were burned," Maktuf Ajaj, Qamar's grandfather said.
In tears and reeling from the shock of the tragic murder of his entire family, Qamar is calling on the Iraqi government and local authorities to bring the perpetrator to justice.
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