RABAT: Morocco’s navy on Saturday found the bodies of 15 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa on board a boat stranded at sea for days and rescued 53 survivors, a military source said.
Coast Guards recovered “15 lifeless corpses” from the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea after it was left drifting for four days following engine failure on its way to Spain, the source said.
The 53 other survivors on board, including eight women, were taken to the port of Nador.
Increasing numbers of Moroccans and sub-Saharan migrants are seeking to enter Spain, either by sea or by smuggling themselves into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are in Morocco and are the only European territories in Africa.
The International Organization for Migration says that some 51,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea this year, and that over 630 have died or gone missing trying.
On Friday the Moroccan navy said it rescued 289 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan African off Nador.
Moroccan authorities say that between January and the end of September they stopped some 68,000 illegal attempts to cross into Europe and took down 122 people smuggling gangs.

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 neighboring 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 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad, thousands of homes were left totally underwater by the rains.
And in Mosul, the Daesh group’s onetime bastion in Iraq, the heavy storms submerged two floating bridges along the Tigris river, which bisects the city.
They were the only way to move between Mosul’s eastern and western halves, after its bridges were all bombed by the anti-IS fight.
Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced Friday he was establishing a “crisis cell” of security forces and local authorities to coordinate a response.
The ministries of electricity, oil, and trade had also indicated their willingness to help.
Iraq is one of the hottest countries on earth but when heavy rains do hit, they can result in casualties because of deteriorating public infrastructure.
In 2015, 58 Iraqis were killed in floods and cases of electrocution due to intense downpours.

ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities detained two people following a drive-by shooting near the Austrian Embassy in capital Ankara early Sunday.
The governor’s office said in a statement the two suspects were detained and their weapon confiscated. It said the suspects were thought to be under the influence of alcohol after having drunk late into the night.
The governor’s office said the suspects shot into the air from a moving car near the Austrian Embassy at 0400 am (0100 GMT). There were no reports of damage or injuries.
Official Anadolu news agency said they were in a white car and security forces briefly closed down roads near the embassy in Ankara. According to the agency, crime scene investigators found many shell casings overnight.
Video from the night showed police at the scene and numerous police cars.
It is unclear if the embassy was the target. All was normal in the area Sunday morning.
In August, three bullets hit the gate and reinforced window outside the US Embassy in Ankara in a drive-by shooting. No one was injured. The US embassy is located on the same boulevard as the Austrian one, about 130 meters (427 feet) away.

CAIRO: Egypt’s Meteorological Authority warned on Friday that several areas in south and north Sinai are expecting floods this week while heavy rainfall created disruption in several governorates in Egypt over the weekend.
November and December often sees streets of Egypt witnessing disruption due to the weak infrastructure and unreadiness for heavy rainfall.
On Friday, a similar situation occurred on the main Ninetieth Road with huge amounts of water filling and blocking the way affecting traffic and raising concerns, reminiscent of April’s major disruption that damaged houses, shopping malls and cars.
“We have a new director for the city and he was appointed to solve these issues after the former one was sacked, yet we are in the exact same position now,” a New Cairo resident told Arab news on anonymity.
“Roads and houses are threatened by heavy rainfall and this is a new city. It’s disappointing to see low attention from the administration of the city toward a critical issue like this. I see it coming, we will witness another catastrophe here,” they added.
New Cairo is considered one of the most affected city affected amid heavy rainfalls. Videos and photos were posted on social media showing drowning and blocked streets.
“New Cairo is drowning again … If you have cars in your garages remove it just in case”, posted Amira Mousa, a New Cairo resident.
The Traffic Police department has beefed up the presence of relief vehicles along the roads across Cairo to get prepared for unlikely incidents, while they installed radars on highways to avoid rain-related accidents.
The department has intensified coordination with different security directorates to observe roads, and report regularly on its status.
In a statement on Saturday, Egypt’s Meteorological Authority said more clouds will prevail in most areas accompanied by rainfall on the northern coast, seasides and Sinai, in addition to a significant drop in temperature.
Winds will get stronger on the Mediterranean and Red Sea, disrupting sea navigation on Saturday, the statement said.
The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation warned citizens of the coastal areas and Sinai of the risks of rainfall and floods, stressing the need to exercise caution and take the necessary measures to avoid damage caused by rain in these areas.
A periodic update of Egypt’s rainfall maps is carried out with a map every 6 hours, the ministry added.
The ministry raised a state of high alert, forming emergency rooms in the governorates and linking them with a central operations room in the ministry, to deal with bottlenecks and curb any risks of floods and their consequences.
Our pre-emptive work has been completed to clear the canal networks to cope with any possible floods. All the official entities have been informed of the forecast to take the necessary measures”, said Eng. Abdullatif Khalid, head of the irrigation sector.

LONDON: Daesh has killed 47 US-backed fighters in two days in an attack launched from its embattled holdout in eastern Syria, a war monitor said Saturday.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Kurdish-led alliance backed by the US-led coalition is battling to expel the militants from a pocket in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the jihadists broke out of that pocket on Friday to attack a nearby village where SDF fighters and coalition advisers are based.
“IS launched a broad attack on the village of Al-Bahra next to its holdout, taking advantage of the fog,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said using a name for Daesh.
Abdel Rahman said 47 SDF fighters were killed in the attack, and violent clashes continued to rage on Saturday as coalition air planes carried out air strikes in the area.
Twenty-seven Daesh militants were killed in clashes and air strikes in the same period, according to the Observatory, which says it relies on sources inside Syria for its information.
The monitor said coalition raids has also killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the Daesh-held pocket since Friday.
Coalition spokesman Sean Ryan said he had not received any reports of civilian casualties, and insisted its air strikes had been “very limited due to the weather.”
The anti-Daesh alliance has repeatedly denied previous reports of civilians killed in its air strikes, and said it does its utmost to avoid targeting non-combatants.
Deir Ezzor activist Omar Abu Leila said the attack on Al-Bahra was “very scary” and that Daesh fighters were able to move quickly “taking advantage of the fog.”
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate” in land it controlled but has lost most of it to offensives by multiple forces in both countries.
In Syria, the militants are largely confined to the pocket in Deir Ezzor, but they also have a presence in vast Badia desert that stretches across the country to the Iraqi border.
Since 2014, the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for over 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number much higher.
Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since its started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.