Iraq moves 13 'highly dangerous' containers from Basra port

Iraq’s Border Ports Authority yesterday announced the evacuation of 13 containers at the Basra ports for containing “highly dangerous chemicals”.

The authority’s Director, Omar Adnan Al-Waeli, told official Alsumaria that the border guards had conducted an “inspection visit to the Basra border crossing to implement the directives of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to evacuate the dangerous chemicals containers from the city’s port.”

Al-Waeli pointed out that the guards had removed 13 containers which housed “highly dangerous materials” after completing all procedures to ensure they were far from the port facilities and surrounding residential areas.

This comes as Iraq checks storage spaces around its ports in response to a large blast that devastated Beirut port, Lebanon, in August as a result of a warehouse which housed highly explosive ammonium nitrate without the necessary precautions.

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