16-year-old Iraqi girl raped and murdered on

A 16-year-old Iraqi girl was raped and murdered in front of her mother on a sinking migrant sailboat off the coast of Italy, according to the Italian news agency AGI.

Italian police have arrested the suspect, a 27-year-old Iraqi, and are holding him in Catanzaro.

The sailing boat, which was believed to have around 70 migrants on board, including over 20 children, was on its way from Iran, Syria and Iraq when its engine exploded and the boat began to sink. Only 12 people could be rescued.

Survivors told rescue workers that they were not wearing life jackets and that some passing boats did not provide them with assistance.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the bodies of 15 children were found among those killed at sea.

Separately, security forces in the Iraqi Kurdistan region arrested four people suspected of involvement in the sinking of the ship.

NGOs and families of the victims reported that the sailboat was mainly carrying Kurdish migrants from Iraq and Iran, as well as Afghan families.