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FILE PHOTO: A man and his wife wear protective face mask, following the outbreak of coronavirus, at a supermarket in Baghdad, Iraq February 29, 2020.REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has banned entry to travelers coming from France and Spain, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, bringing the total number of countries on its entry ban list to 11 as it tries to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The ban does not extend to Iraqi citizens and foreign diplomats, a ministry spokesman said in a statement. Iraq has so far recorded 38 cases of coronavirus and two deaths.

The health minister, who heads Iraqs coronavirus response task force, called on all Iraqis in Iran - which has suffered the worlds deadliest coronavirus outbreak outside China - to return by March 15 before border crossings are closed and only four airports open to them.

Overland trade with Kuwait and Iran is to be suspended between March 8-15, the health minister added in a decree.

Iraq is alarmed about any spread of the coronavirus from neighboring Iran. Iraqs first recorded case was of an Iranian student who was then sent home, and the rest had all visited Iran recently. Iraq has close cultural and religious ties with Iran and annually receives millions of Iranian pilgrims.

Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Mark Heinrich

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Iraq puts France and Spain on coronavirus entry ban list - Reuters

Iraqi hotel manager Badr al-Jilawi needs to think for a moment to remember when the last guest checked in to visit the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Najaf, once a prime destination for millions of pilgrims.

With the coronavirus spreading, authorities have banned foreign pilgrims, paralyzing an industry already crippled by anti-government protests and an economic crisis in Shi'ite Iran, usually the source of five million pilgrims annually.

Hotels stand empty in Najaf, home to the Iman Ali shrine, and neighboring Kerbela, site of the Imam Hussein shrine - two of the holiest of the Shi'ite world. Souvenir shops and restaurants are also counting their losses.

"Business has stopped. We haven't had one single visitor since around six months, maybe some five Iraqis came but no foreigner," he said. "Unemployment has jumped (in Najaf)."

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He has laid off all but three of his 40 staff to hold the fort with him in the sparsely lit reception.

In total about 4,000 people working in the hospitality sector have lost their jobs in Najaf as the occupancy rate at the 350 hotels and their 40,000 beds is practically "zero", said Saib Radhi Abu Ghanem, head of the local hotel and restaurant association.

His last guest came in October when anti-government protests broke out and roads were blocked. News that 500 protesters had been killed scared off many pilgrims from Iran, the Gulf, Pakistan, Lebanon and other countries home to Shi'ites.

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More unemployment could fuel the protests, which are driven by complaints by many Iraqis about corruption, mismanagement and the lack of basic services despite Iraq's oil wealth.

Iraqi pilgrims still come but often only for day trips, benefitting the economy little. Many shops in the narrow streets clustered around the shrine have closed and those still open have little to do.

"Najaf has always been a harbor for pilgrims but now I have very little work," said Emar Saadoun, a tailor selling religious garments.

He has been running his one-room shop for 40 years but business has been rarely as bad as now, not even under Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, toppled by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, who used to supress Shi'ites.

'Second coronavirus'

Tourism is a key industry not just in Najaf but also in Kerbela, Baghdad and Samarra, home to other Shi'ite places of worshipping.

More than ten millions arrived annualy alone in Najaf, half of them Iranians, and hotels were usually booked at this time of the year when some Gulf countries have schools breaks, said Abu Ghanem.

Pilgrimage tourism has been in trouble for years due to an economic crisis in Iran, where the currency crashed in 2018 due to U.S. sanctions.

The crisis is worsened by a political void in Iraq. Caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who quit in November over the unrest, walked away on Monday, a day after his designated successor, Mohammed Allawi, also left amid political infighting.

"This is a second coronavirus, that there is no state, no prime minister," said Jilawi. "I have monthly costs of $10,000 for electrity, taxes, water. We should get waivers."

One hotel still has business, the five-star Qasr Aldur where some 120 of its 420 rooms are occupied by Kuwaiti pilgrims, who stay here until their embassy has figured out how to bring them back. A doctor keeps checking on them.

"There are no flights anymore so we don't now when we can go home," said Mohamed Jasser, a Kuwaiti pilgrim.

Once they are gone the hotel owner, Nuri Nur, also thinks of closing up and send his 60 mask-wearing staff home.

"I might close in a week or so," said Nur.

Authorities check on health of non-resident travellers at road blocks to Najaf and Kerbala, and the latter has canceled Friday prayers for the first time since 2003.

Many pilgrims were still undetered, with few wearing masks and many kissing the Imam Ali shrine, a Shi'ite tradition.

"I have been here more than a thousands times," said 67-year old pilgrim Said al-Mussawi, head of a group from the southern city of Basra. "God is protecting us so why should I be afraid?"

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Coronavirus and protests wreck Iraq's pilgrimage industry - Haaretz

(MENAFN - Iraq Business News) UNICEF partners with the Republic of Korea to provide water and sanitation services for the most vulnerable children in Iraq

Approximately 3 million children and young people across Iraq need humanitarian support as they try to recover from years of conflict and violence.

The Republic of Korea has partnered with UNICEF and contributed US$1 million to provide water and sanitation services to the most vulnerable children living in displacement camps in Anbar, Ninewa and Salah al Din-areas hardest hit by the violence.

Hamida Lasseko, UNICEF's Representative in Iraq, said:

"An estimated 30 per cent of displaced children live in camps, where humanitarian needs are greatest. The contribution from the Republic of Korea will ensure we are able to continue providing critical services such as safe drinking water as well as maintaining sanitation facilities to promote hygiene and protect children from preventable diseases."

In addition to the provision of safe drinking water for nearly 60,000 people in the displacement camps, the contribution from the Korea will support the following activities:

In 2019, the Water, Hygiene and Sanitation Cluster (WASH) co-led by UNICEF and other non-governmental organizations reached over 1.8 million people with safe water in Ninewa, Salah al Din and Anbar.

(Source: UN)

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UNICEF, Korea to provide Water and Sanitation in Iraq - MENAFN.COM

2018 Anadolu Agency KIRKUK, IRAQ - MARCH 20: People gather around the fire during the Newroz celebrations on March 20, 2018 in Kirkuk, Iraq. (Photo by Ali Mukarrem Garip/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

KIRKUK, Iraq A rocket slammed into an Iraqi base where American troops are stationed in the remote province of Kirkuk, Iraq's military and a US security source told AFP on Thursday night.

It was the latest in a string of nearly 20 rocket attacks since late October on US troops stationed across the country as well as on the American embassy in Baghdad.

According to three separate Iraqi security sources, the Katyusha rocket hit an open area on the K1 base at around 8:45pm local time (1745 GMT).

Both US troops and Iraqi federal police forces are stationed there but neither sustained casualties, according to a statement from Iraq's military.

It said security forces found the launch pad from which the rocket was fired, with 11 more rockets still inside, but the perpetrators were on the run.

An Iraqi security source told AFP that the launch pad was found about five kilometres (three miles) from the base, in a multi-ethnic area.

It was the first attack on K1 since December 27, when a volley of around 30 rockets killed a US contractor there and unleashed a dramatic escalation.

Washington blamed the rockets on Kataeb Hezbollah, a hardline Iraqi military faction close to Iran, and conducted retaliatory strikes that killed 25 of the group's fighters.

Supporters of the group then surrounded the US embassy in Baghdad, breaking through its outer perimeter in an unprecedented breach.

Days later, a US drone strike at Baghdad airport killed Iran's pointman on Iraqi affairs Qasem Soleimani and his right-hand man, Kataeb Hezbollah co-founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

In outrage, Iraq's parliament voted to oust all foreign forces from the country, including around 5,200 US troops deployed to help local forces beat back remnants of the Islamic State group.

Iran carried out in own strikes in response to Soleimani's killing, firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at the sprawling Ain al-Asad base in western Iraq on January 8.

The troops had prior warning and none were killed, but more than 100 have since been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

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Rocket attack hits north Iraq base hosting US troops ...

Multiple rockets hit near the US embassy in Iraqs capital early on Sunday, an American military source said, the latest in a flurry of attacks against US assets in the country.

The assault sent warning sirens blaring across the diplomatic compound but it was unclear what was hit and how many rockets made impact, the US source and a western diplomat based nearby said. There were no casualties and only minor damage, a US military spokesman said.

Agence France-Presses correspondents heard multiple strong explosions followed by aircraft circling near the green zone, the high-security enclave where the US mission is located.

It was the 19th attack since October to target either the embassy or the roughly 5,200 US troops stationed alongside local forces across Iraq. The attacks are never claimed but the US has pointed the finger at Iran-backed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a military network officially incorporated into Iraqs state security forces.

In late December, a rocket attack on the northern Iraqi base of K1 left one US contractor dead and unleashed a dramatic series of events. Washington responded with retaliatory strikes against a hardline Hashed faction in western Iraq, and days later an American drone strike in Baghdad killed the top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and his right-hand man, Hashed, deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Hashed factions have vowed revenge for the pairs death, insisting US troops should immediately leave Iraq.

Sundays attack came just hours after one of the Hasheds Iran-backed factions, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced a countdown to ousting American forces from the country. He tweeted a photograph of what he claimed was an American military vehicle, adding: We are closer than you think.

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Baghdad explosions: rockets strike near US embassy in Iraq - The Guardian