SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Eleven people including nine schoolteachers died in a traffic collision between Babil and Baghdad provinces, Iraqi authorities said on Saturday.
The accident took place on the main road between Babil and Baghdad, the general directorate of traffic police said in a statement.
A police source told AFP that the collision happened around midnight as the group was returning in a minibus from Karbala.
Their vehicle collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser with a vehicle registration plate of Erbil, the directorate said.
The 4×4 vehicle was travelling in the opposition direction “due to high speed and the driver of the second vehicle’s lack of attention”, it added.
Last year, almost 1,000 people died in road accidents in Iraq, a country of around 41 million people, AFP cited a traffic authority official as saying.
*This story was updated at 3:00 p.m. EBL time
