Tourist bus crash on Nineveh-Salahuddin border kills 3, injures 20

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A tourist bus traveling from Baghdad to Duhok overturned near the Berari checkpoint on the administrative border between Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces on Saturday, killing three people and injuring 20, Iraqi officials said. Iraq's General Directorate of Traffic said the bus was carrying a tourist group heading from Baghdad and southern cities to the Kurdistan Region and northern provinces. A freight truck was driving properly in the right lane when the bus driver fell asleep at the wheel, lost control and collided with the truck before overturning onto a gravel shoulder, the directorate said in a statement. A security source at the Nineveh Police Directorate said 23 people were affected in total, including women. The death toll could rise as the casualty figures had not yet been finalized, the source added. The directorate called on tour and passenger transport companies to ensure drivers rest adequately before nighttime trips, inspect their vehicles before departure and are physically fit to drive. No further details on the victims' nationalities were immediately available.