UN convoy hit by explosion in northern Iraq
The convoy was being operated by the World Food Program.
The United Nations said one of its convoys was hit by an explosion Wednesday in northern Iraq; there were few other details. Two UN employees were reported injured.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who heads the UN’s Iraq mission, told the UN Security Council via videoconference that an improvised explosive device had detonated near the convoy. “Conditions for humanitarian actors are also hazardous in certain areas as was starkly highlighted Wednesday by the IED explosion that impacted a World Food Program convoy in Ninevah,” she said.
Ninevah province is in northern Iraq and includes the city of Mosul. The Islamic State (IS) took the area in 2014. Ninevah has a large amount of religious and ethnic diversity and parts of it are disputed between the federal and Kurdistan Region governments. The Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units control much of the province post-IS.
Hennis-Plasschaert spent the rest of her briefing discussing other humanitarian matters in Iraq and did not offer further details on the explosion. The World Food Program’s Iraq office did not respond to Al-Monitor’s request for comment on the incident.
