Search for three missing children in Soran river enters third day

SORAN — Search teams continue looking for three children swept away by the Gali Ali Beg river in Soran district after a vehicle veered off a road and plunged into the water late Friday, with no trace of the victims found after two days.

Karwan Mirawdeli, head of Soran Civil Defense, told 964media that multiple teams are participating in the search, including local residents, volunteers and units from the Civil Defense directorates of Erbil and Akre. Additional teams from Duhok, Sulaymaniyah and Raparin could be deployed if needed.

The incident occurred on the Kani Maran road in Soran, when a family of five — a man, a woman and three children returning from an outing — veered off the road and fell into the river. The man and woman were rescued, but the vehicle and the three children were swept away by the current. Two of the children are siblings; the third is their relative.

A previous drowning in the area took months to resolve. Teacher Avesta Yousif Barzinji disappeared in April 2025 after falling into the Tangatour River in Erbil’s Mergasor district while trying to rescue her brother. Her body was not recovered until mid-December, more than eight months later, after an extensive search involving civil defense teams from Soran, Erbil, Shaqlawa and Akre using boats, divers, drones and ground units.