Grief-stricken residents in Iraq's northern city of Mosul are demanding justice after the sinking of a ferry packed with families killed more 100 people, including children.

The vessel, which was carrying people celebrating both the Nowruz holiday and Mother's Day, capsized on Thursday in the Tigris River.

"The number of casualties has risen to 103, while an estimated 50 more remain missing," Ghazwan al-Daoudi, a member of Nineveh's provincial council, told Anadolu Agency on Friday.

"We believe the ferryboat was carrying about 200 passengers when it sank," he added.

In the early hours of Friday, local authorities said 55 survivors had been pulled from the river near Mosul, the regional capital of Nineveh province.

According to al-Daoudi, the council will convene an emergency session later in the day in which "all those involved in the incident" would be present.

'Brought to justice'

Earlier on Friday, relatives of the victims went to local hospitals to collect bodies of their loved ones in advance of funerals. Some chanted: "No to corruption!" and "They are all thieves."

"How can a ferry sail with no means of rescue available," asked Dalia Mahmoud, a woman who was standing outside the coroner's office.

At the scene of the accident, where prayers were held for the dead, many said the disaster could have been avoided.

"We want those responsible to be brought to justice," said Mohammed Adel, 27, whose father was among those who died. He accused officials of failing to enforce safety standards.

PM's visit

Although no official statements have been issued regarding the cause of the accident, local residents have attributed it to overcrowding, saying the ferry only had a 50-passenger capacity.

After visiting the scene of the accident alongside President Barham Saleh, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi declared three days of national mourning. He said the justice system "must do its job and the investigation must produce results on the reasons for this shipwreck".

According to a statement released late Thursday by Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, nine people have been detained so far in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, witnesses told Anadolu Agency that angry local residents, including several relatives of the victims, chanted slogans and hurled shoes at Nineveh Governor Nofal al-Akoub following his arrival to the site of the ferryboat accident.

As al-Akoub's convoy attempted to flee the scene, two people - both relatives of the victims - were run over in the confusion, according to witnesses. The extent of their injuries remains unknown.

Calls for accountability

The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia majority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for accountability for those responsible for the sinking and urged officials whose ministries were linked to the tragedy to resign.

Al-Sistani's message was delivered by his representative Ahmed al-Safi in the Shia holy city of Karbala.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis sent a telegram of condolences to Iraqi authorities, expressing his "prayerful solidarity" with all those who lost loved ones.

The sinking of the ferry was a tragic blow to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city that is still struggling to overcome the devastation wreaked by ISIL.

The armed group, also known as ISIS, captured Mosul it in the summer of 2014, making the city its main stronghold in Iraq. After US-backed Iraqi forces retook it three years later, in July 2017, much of Mosul was left in ruins.

"We lost a lot because of Daesh and we will not accept to lose more," said Mahmoud, using an Arabic name to refer to ISIL. </s> BAGHDAD: At least 21 people have died and tens of thousands displaced by heavy rains that have battered Iraq over two days, the health ministry and United Nations said on Sunday.

Women and children were among the dead, health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told AFP. Some had drowned, but others had died in car accidents, were electrocuted, or were trapped when their houses collapsed.

At least 180 more were injured, he added. Iraq and neighbouring countries have been hit by heavier-than-average rainfall in recent weeks, resulting in deaths and widespread damage. The country's north has borne the brunt of it, and the UN's Iraq office said the downpour had forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes.

An estimated 10,000 people in Salahaddin province and 15,000 people in Nineveh are in desperate need of help, including families living in displacement camps, the UN said. In the Al-Sharqat district in Salahaddin, about 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, thousands of homes were left totally underwater by the rains. And in Mosul, the Islamic State group's onetime bastion in Iraq, the heavy storms submerged two floating bridges along the Tigris river, which bisects the city. </s> At least eight dead as boat capsizes in Indonesia

At least eight people died and several others remain missing after a passenger boat capsized off the coast of Borneo on Monday, an official said, in the latest deadly maritime accident in Indonesia.

Some 33 people have so far been rescued and navy personnel have been dispatched to search for the remaining passengers, but he said high waves are impeding operations.

"We don't know yet what has caused the accident and how exactly it happened. But we'll try to figure that out and are now focusing on finding the remaining passengers," Mulyadi told AFP.

It is the latest boat accident in the vast Indonesian archipelago, which relies heavily on boats to ferry people around its 17,000 islands, but has a patchy safety record.

Last July, eight people drowned in a boat accident on the same route from Tarakan to Tanjung Selor.

On New Year's day last year at least 23 people died when a tourist boat from Jakarta burst into flames.

It was carrying about 250 local holidaymakers to celebrate the New Year on Tidung island near Jakarta. </s> Jakarta : Twenty-three people have been killed and at least 17 have been injured after a fire on board a ferry on the way to one of Indonesia's Thousand Islands, a popular tourist getaway for Jakartans, on New Year's Day. Another 17 people are still missing after the Zahro Express, which was heading to Tidung Island, caught on fire, according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Age. </s> IRBIL, Iraq — ISIS has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings at crowded Baghdad markets on Sunday, killing 16 people.

The attacks happened the same day anti-ISIS forces advanced on the terror group’s stronghold in Mosul.

The first blast happened when a driver blew up his explosives-laden vehicle at the Alwat-Jamila market in eastern Baghdad’s Sadr City. At least 11 people were killed and 25 were wounded, police said.

In the second attack, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up at a busy market in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Baladiyat, police said. At least five people were killed, and 12 were wounded.

ISIS’ media wing, Amaq, claimed responsibility for both explosions in statements posted on Twitter. The statements said the bombings targeted Shiites.

Car bombs and roadside bombs are not uncommon in Baghdad, but in 2017, ISIS has already carried out several attacks across the capital and killed dozens of people.

The latest wave of violence in Baghdad came as Iraqi counterterrorism forces reached the east bank of the Tigris River in eastern Mosul on Sunday, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement.

Iraqi security forces on Sunday killed more than 125 ISIS militants in several neighborhoods in eastern Mosul, according to a statement released by Iraq’s joint operations command.

Forty ISIS fighters were killed by counterterrorism forces as they were advancing toward the east bank of the Tigris River, the statement said, with the US-led coalition providing air support.

The Iraqi army, counterterrorism forces and fedral police have been battling ISIS in eastern Mosul since the second phase of the Mosul operation was launched about 10 days ago.

Their progress marks the first time Iraqi troops were able to reach the river since large-scale military operations to root out ISIS started in the Mosul area on October 17, 2016. </s> An explosion on a ferry carrying 35 tourists between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok on Thursday killed two people, an Indonesian and a Dutch national, and injured 13, police said.

“Two of them died, 13 were injured,” Bali police spokesman Made Sudana said, adding the explosion happened off the coast of Lombok.

“It seems there was some sort of explosion on the boat, so there was an emergency with the engine.”

Tourists on board included Australian, Korean, British, French, and German citizens, according to media.

A Karachi-bound express train collided with a freight train in Pakistan’s central Punjab region early on Thursday, killing at least six people and injuring more than 150, Geo TV said.

The Awam Express hit a stationary cargo train about 25 km (15 miles) from the city of Multan, Geo TV said, citing local officials. Four carriages were overturned.

There was a delay in the emergency response due to Eid holidays in Pakistan, a mainly Muslim nation of 190 million people.

Pakistan’s colonial era railway network has fallen into disrepair in recent decades due to chronic under investment and poor maintenance.

About 130 people were killed in July 2005 when a train rammed into another at a station in Sindh province, and a third train hit the wreckage. </s> CAIRO — Sudan’s state news agency says a boat sank while crossing the Nile River, killing at least 21 students and a woman.

SUNA said the boat was carrying more than 40 students on their way to school in the northern River Nile state on Wednesday. The report did not say how old the students were.

It says the boat sank because of a technical failure. </s> At least 26 people have been killed and 40 wounded in overnight attacks carried out by Islamic state militants in the city of Tikrit, in central Iraq, Reuters reported, citing Iraqi security sources and medics.Tikrit was captured by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants in June 2014. In September 2015, IS blew up the Green Church, one of the oldest Christian churches in the Middle East, as well as Al Arbain, a shrine and historical mosque, which were both located in the city center.In 2015 the Iraqi Army retook Tirkit, but the jihadist fighters have continued to carry out attacks in the city and its outskirts. In March of this year, dozens of people were killed in suicide bomb blasts that went off at a wedding party in a village near the city. </s> At least 20 people were killed when their passenger boat collided with a river barge in western Myanmar, a state-run newspaper reported.

The boat carrying 80 passengers sank shortly after a “head on collision” with the cargo ship yesterday evening in a river near Pathein, a port city west of Yangon, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.

The boat was filled with guests returning from a wedding, according to other local media.

“Eighteen bodies including four men and 14 women were discovered in the wrecked ship so far,” the state mouthpiece said, without elaborating on the other two it confirmed dead.

It added that rescue operations were ongoing.

Fatal boat accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people living along its flood-prone rivers rely on often overcrowded ferries for transport.

Last October 73 people, including many teachers and students, died when their packed vessel capsized in central Myanmar on the Chindwin River.

It took several days to recover all of the bodies.

In March 2015, around 60 people died after their ferry, which was carrying some 200 passengers, sank off the coast of western Rakhine state.

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At least 103 people are killed when a Tigris River ferry, carrying families celebrating the Nowruz new year holiday, sinks near the Iraqi city of Mosul.