Residents tell of terror:
Iran takes brunt of cross-border disaster
DARBANDIKHAN: Nizar Abdullah spent the night sifting through the ruins of the two-storey house next door in the mountainous town of Darbandikhan in Iraqi Kurdistan after a killer quake hit the region.
“There were eight people inside,” Abdullah, an Iraqi Kurd, told reporters yesterday, outside the pile of concrete debris where the house once stood.
Some family members managed to escape, but “neighbours and rescue workers pulled out the mother and one of the children dead from the rubble”, said the 34-year-old.
The 7.3-magnitude quake hit on the Iraq-Iran border area on Sunday night, killing hundreds of people and injuring thousands of others.
Iran took the brunt of it, with at least 341 people killed and almost 6,000 known injured, while in Iraq the quake claimed eight lives and injured 535 others, officials from both countries said.
The quake hit a border area 30km southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20pm (1.20am yesterday, Thailand time), the US Geological Survey said.
Most people were at home when the quake struck.
“All at once the electricity went out and I felt a strong tremor,” said Loqman Hussein.
“I immediately ran out of the house with my family,” he added.
Akram Wali, 50, said many families in Darbandikhan sought shelter with relatives outside of the town.
They fled as authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan called on the population in the southern area of the town to leave their homes, fearing that the Darbandikhan dam would burst.
The dam, which spans the Diyala River, is located in Sulaimaniyah province, where seven people were killed, including four in Darbandikhan. One person died in Diyala province.
The temblor did visible damage to the dam. “There are horizontal and vertical cracks on the road and in the body of the dam and parts of the dam sank lower,” said Rahman Hani, the director of the dam.
Taha Mohammed, 65, has not heeded the call to leave Darbandikhan, even if the quake totally destroyed his house.
“We ran out and no one was injured,” said the man dressed in the traditional baggy pants of Iraqi Kurds, counting his blessings despite the tragedy.
Iraqi health ministry spokesman Seif al-Nadr said that the quake injured 321 people in Iraqi Kurdistan, 170 others in Diyala province and 44 in the disputed northern province of Kirkuk.
Most of them were treated for shock, he said in a statement.
“The Iraqi government must help the victims,” said Yassin Qassem, whose house was badly damaged by the quake.
“We are Kurds but also Iraqis,” he added.
Tensions have run high between the autonomous Kurdish region and the federal government in Baghdad since the Kurds held an independence referendum in September in defiance of Baghdad.
Sunday’s quake was also felt in southeastern Turkey.
Ankara has sent humanitarian assistance to Iraq, including tents and blankets, as well as a medical team, a Turkish government spokesman said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country stands with the region in difficult times and wished the Iraqi and Iranian people a speedy recovery.
Mr Erdogan also said a convoy of 50 aid trucks has already crossed the border into Iraq.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s government also extended its deepest condolences for the loss of life and injuries suffered by “our Iranian and Iraqi brethren”.