Nihad was a 21-year-old university student who initially escaped the blast but returned to the burning building to save his cat; he managed to keep the cat but lost his life in the flame. 

Nihad’s cat survived with a bit of burn on her fur. On November 22, a gas tank exploded in Duhok’s Grebasy neighborhood at a building that housed a bakery and a dormitory that killed two students and four police officers.

His family went to the destroyed dorm in tears to bring Nihad’s cat back home and wished that Nihad had stayed alive. His roommates talked of Nihad as a kind person who loved to help others.

Petting cats in the Kurdistan region is a new phenomenon, and cats were previously looked at as doomed, filthy creatures. 

One of Nihad's roommates sorrowfully hugging Nihad's cat after the gas leak blast.