The crash occurred on Sunday afternoon in Thi Qar province as the bus traveled from the holy Shiite city of Najaf to the southern port city of Basra, according to Ahmad Saleem, spokesperson for the Thi Qar provincial council.

Saleem said 14 of the victims were burned beyond recognition, complicating identification efforts. Two Iranian nationals are believed to be among the dead, although authorities had not yet confirmed their identities.

Twenty people were injured in the accident, including two Iranian passengers who were transferred to Iran on Monday morning through coordination with the Iranian Consulate in Basra, Saleem said.

Local officials attributed the crash to poor road conditions. Saleem said provincial authorities had previously raised concerns about the condition of the roadway where the accident occurred, which lies between Thi Qar and Diwaniyah provinces.

He also said a severe shortage of ambulances in Thi Qar province hindered emergency response efforts following the crash.

The accident is the latest in a series of deadly road incidents in Iraq, where decades of conflict, corruption and underinvestment have strained infrastructure development and maintenance. Poorly maintained highways, aging vehicle fleets and weak enforcement of traffic regulations have contributed to a high rate of road fatalities across the country.

In 2023, a bus carrying pilgrims bound for the Iraqi city of Karbala crashed north of Baghdad, killing 18 people.

Authorities have not released further details on the cause of Sunday’s crash as identification efforts and investigations continue.

The incident occurred on Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant in Longview, where a massive storage tank containing a highly caustic industrial chemical ruptured during an early morning shift change, triggering a large-scale emergency response and search operation.

“We have recovered the ninth and final missing employee of this incident,” Longview Fire Department Chief Brad Hannig told reporters, confirming the end of the recovery effort.

Authorities had earlier reported two fatalities immediately following the accident, while nine workers remained unaccounted for amid difficult search conditions inside the industrial complex.

According to officials, the accident involved a 900,000-gallon tank holding a substantial quantity of white liquor, a chemical solution widely used in paper production. The tank ruptured after what authorities described as an implosion, releasing large volumes of the substance within the facility.

White liquor is a highly alkaline mixture containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. In the pulp and paper industry, it is used to break down wood chips into pulp, a key step in paper manufacturing.

The scale of the tank and the hazardous nature of the chemical complicated rescue and recovery efforts throughout the week, prompting a major response from local emergency services.

The facility is operated by Nippon Dynawave Packaging, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Japan’s Nippon Paper Group. According to company information, the plant manufactures paper-based packaging products and produces approximately eight billion single-serve containers annually for customers across North America, Asia and other international markets.

Authorities have not yet released details regarding the cause of the tank failure. Investigations into the incident are expected to examine operational procedures, equipment integrity and workplace safety conditions at the facility.

The accident ranks among the deadliest industrial incidents in Washington state in recent years and is likely to intensify scrutiny of chemical storage and safety practices within the pulp and paper manufacturing sector.

The explosion occurred late on Friday at the Liushenyu coal mine in Qinyuan County, where 247 workers were on duty underground at the time of the accident, according to state news agency Xinhua. Rescue operations were continuing on Saturday as authorities worked to locate remaining workers and assess conditions at the site.

The mine is operated by Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry, a company established in 2010 and controlled by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, according to corporate records.Local emergency management authorities said the cause of the explosion remained under investigation.

Shanxi, China’s leading coal-producing region, has long been at the center of the country’s mining industry and has experienced numerous major industrial accidents over the decades.President Xi Jinping ordered authorities to spare no effort in treating the injured and conducting search-and-rescue operations, according to Xinhua.

He also called for a comprehensive investigation into the disaster and accountability for those found responsible under the law.Premier Li Qiang urged officials to ensure the timely release of information and enforce rigorous accountability measures as investigations proceed.

Xinhua reported that executives linked to the company operating the mine had been detained following the accident.Provincial authorities dispatched seven rescue and medical teams comprising 755 personnel to the disaster site, according to Qinyuan’s emergency management bureau.

China has significantly reduced fatalities in its coal mining sector over the past two decades through stricter safety regulations, modernization efforts and tougher enforcement standards.

Nevertheless, gas explosions and other underground hazards continue to pose risks in some mining operations.

The previous deadliest coal mining disaster in China occurred in 2009, when a coal and gas outburst at a mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people and injured 133.