Fire kills 19, including 16 foreigners, in Iraq's Erbil

By Idris Okudcu

ERBIL, Iraq

A fire that tore through a massage parlor in Erbil, capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, has left 19 people dead, according to a local official.

Erbil Governor Nevzet Hadi told reporters late Friday that the death toll included 15 Filipinos, three Iraqi nationals and a Palestinian.

The bodies had been taken to a local government hospital, Hadi said, going on to attribute the deaths to "suffocation and smoke inhalation".

In an earlier statement, Hadi said the cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit.