Strong earthquake hits Iraq and Iran, killing over 300
BAGHDAD/ANKARA (Reuters) – More than 300 people were killed in Iran when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted the country on Sunday, state media said, and rescuers were searching for dozens trapped under rubble in the mountainous area. At least six have died in Iraq as well.
State television said more than 336 people were killed in Iran and at least 3,950 were injured. Local officials said the death toll would rise as search and rescue teams reached remote areas of Iran.
The earthquake was felt in several western provinces of Iran, but the hardest hit province was Kermanshah, which announced three days of mourning. More than 236 of the victims were in Sarpol-e Zahab county in Kermanshah province, about 15 km from the Iraq border.
Iranian state television said the quake had caused heavy damage in some villages where houses were made of earthen bricks. Rescuers were laboring to find survivors trapped under collapsed buildings.
The quake also triggered landslides that hindered rescue efforts, officials told state television. At least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected, Iranian media reported.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences on Monday, urging all government agencies to do all they could to help those affected.
Dancing buildings The US Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 7.3. An Iraqi meteorology official put its magnitude at 6.5 with the epicenter in Penjwin in Sulaimaniyah province in the Kurdistan region, close to the main border crossing with Iran.
Kurdish health officials said at least six people were killed in Iraq and at least 68 injured. Iraq’s health and local officials said the worst-hit area was Darbandikham district, near the border with Iran, where at least 10 houses had collapsed and the district’s only hospital was severely damaged.
The quake was felt as far south as Baghdad, where many residents rushed from their houses and tall buildings when tremors shook the Iraqi capital.
“I was sitting with my kids having dinner and suddenly the building was just dancing in the air,” said Majida Ameer, who ran out of her building in the capital’s Salihiya district with her three children.
United States President Donald Trump has pledged to promote a strong, free and prosperous Indo-Pacific region where countries are “in control of their own destinies.”
Addressing the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, Trump extended his message of friendship and cooperation with the regional partners.
“I’m here to advance peace, to promote security and to work with you to achieve a truly free and open IndoPacific where we are proud and we have sovereign nations, and we thrive, and everyone wants to prosper,” Trump said in his remarks.
“We want our partners in the region to be strong, independent, and prosperous in control of their own destinies and satellites to no one. These are the principles behind our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Trump who has espoused his Indo-Pacific policy apparently to counter the growing clout of
SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh (AP) — Nabi Hussain owes his life to a yellow plastic oil container.
The 13-year-old Rohingya boy couldn’t swim, and had never even seen the sea before fleeing his village in Myanmar. But he clung to the empty container and struggled across the water with it for about 2.5 miles, all the way to Bangladesh.
Rohingya Muslims escaping the violence in their homeland of Myanmar are now so desperate that some are trying to swim to safety in neighboring Bangladesh. In just a week, more than three dozen boys and young men used cooking oil containers like life rafts to swim across the mouth of the Naf River and wash up ashore in Shah Porir Dwip, a fishing town and cattle trade spot.
“I thought at first that it was a huge bomb. But then I heard everyone around me screaming: ‘Earthquake!'”
Similar scenes unfolded in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, and across other cities in northern Iraq, close to the quake’s epicenter.
Cold weather
Electricity was cut off in several Iranian and Iraqi cities, and fears of aftershocks sent thousands of people in both countries out onto the streets and parks in cold weather.
The Iranian seismological center registered around 118 aftershocks and said more were expected. The head of Iranian Red Crescent said more than 70,000 people were in need of emergency shelter.
Hojjat Gharibian was one of hundreds of homeless Iranian survivors, who was huddled against the cold with his family in Qasr-e Shirin.
“My two children were sleeping when the house started to collapse because of the quake. I took them and ran to the street. We spent hours in the street until aid workers moved us into a school building,” Gharibian told Reuters by telephone.
Iran’s police, the elite Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated Basij militia forces were dispatched to the quake-hit areas overnight, state TV reported.
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said some roads were blocked and authorities were worried about casualties in remote villages. An Iranian oil official said pipelines and refineries in the area remained intact.
Iran sits astride major fault lines and is prone to frequent tremors. A China in the region.
Trump also pushed for closer economic cooperation between the United States and the regional bloc, citing their robust economies and vibrant communities.
“Today, we celebrate your incredible success and we also seek economic partnership on the basis of fairness and reciprocity,” he said.
Trump said since his November elections, American economy has been “moving ahead really brilliantly.” He went on to highlight the US record-high stock market performance and “lowest unemployment in 17 years.” He said the value of stocks has risen 5.5 trillion dollars.
“Companies are moving into the United States, a lot of companies, they are moving back. They want to be there. The enthusiasm levels are highest ever recorded on the chart. We are very happy about that and i think that bodes very well for your region because of the relationship that we have,” he said.
Trump also commended the ASEAN for bringing together a vital assembly of nations to build consensus on critical issues
“I was so scared of dying,” said Nabi, a lanky boy in a striped polo shirt and checkered dhoti. “I thought it was going to be my last day.”
Although Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for decades, the country’s Buddhist majority still sees them as invaders from Bangladesh. The government denies them basic rights, and the United Nations has called them the most persecuted minority in the world. Just since August, after their homes were torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers, more than 600,000 Rohingya have risked the trip to Bangladesh.
“We had a lot of suffering, so we thought drowning in the water was a better option,” said Kamal Hussain, 18, who also swam to Bangladesh with an magnitude 6.6 quake on Dec. 26, 2003, devastated the historic city of Bam, 1,000 km southeast of Tehran, killing about 31,000 people.
Hospital severely damaged
On the Iraqi side, the most extensive damage was in the town of Darbandikhan, 75 km east of the city of Sulaimaniyah in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region.
More than 30 people were injured in the town, according to Kurdish Health Minister Rekawt Hama Rasheed.
“The situation there is very critical,” Rasheed told Reuters.
The district’s main hospital was severely damaged and had no power, Rasheed said, so the injured were taken to Sulaimaniyah for treatment. Homes and buildings had extensive structural damage, he said.
In Halabja, local officials said a 12year-old boy died of an electric shock from a falling electric cable.
Iraq’s meteorology center advised people to stay away from buildings and not to use elevators in case of aftershocks.
Turkey and Israel
Residents of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir also reported feeling a strong tremor, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties there.
Turkish Red Crescent Chairman Kerem Kinik told broadcaster NTV that Red Crescent teams in Erbil were preparing to go to the site of the earthquake and that Turkey’s national disaster management agency, AFAD, and National Medical Rescue Teams were also preparing to head into Iraq. facing the region and the world for the past five decades. The bloc has also created a forum for all nations with a stake in the Indo Pacific to listen, learn and develop solutions to common challenges through strategic dialogue, he said.
“The United States remains committed to ASEAN's central role as a regional forum for total cooperation. This diplomatic partnership advances the security and prosperity of the American people and the people of all Indo-Pacific nations,” he said.
President Duterte, speaking as this year’s ASEAN chairman, acknowledged the need to sustain close US-ASEAN relations to help ensure regional peace and stability.
He said Trump comes at a time when ASEAN celebrating 50 years of relative peace and prosperity made possible by partners including the United States.
He said it was in the shared interest to keep the US-ASEAN engagement “close” and ensure such strategic partnership delivers the “best result” for the people. The US-ASEAN relations mark 40th anniversary this year. oil container.
Nabi knows almost no one in this new country, and his parents back in Myanmar don’t know that he is alive. He doesn’t smile and rarely maintains eye contact.
Nabi grew up in the mountains of Myanmar, the fourth of nine children of a farmer who grows paan, the betel leaf used as chewing tobacco. He never went to school.
The trouble started two months ago when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces. The Myanmar military responded with a brutal crackdown, killing men, raping women and burning homes and property. The last Nabi saw of his village, all the homes were on fire.