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A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 14 November 2017

Over 400 dead from earthquake in Iran-Iraq border area

By NASSER KARIMI others, Iran’s crisis manage-
AMIR VAHDAT ment headquarters spokes-
Associated Press man Behnam Saeedi told
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Res- state TV. Most of the injuries
cuers dug with their bare were minor, he said, with
hands Monday through the fewer than 1,000 still hospi-
debris of buildings brought talized.
down by a powerful earth- The semi-official Tasnim
quake that killed more than news agency reported 445
400 people in the once- dead and 7,370 injured.
contested mountainous There was no immediate
border region between explanation of the discrep-
Iraq and Iran, with nearly ancy, although double-
all of the victims in an area counting of victims is com-
rebuilt since the end of the mon during such disasters
ruinous 1980s war. in Iran. The official death toll
Sunday night’s magni- came from provincial fo-
tude 7.3 earthquake struck rensic authorities based on
about 19 miles (31 kilome- death certificates issued.
ters) outside the eastern Some reports said authori-
Iraqi city of Halabja, ac- ties have warned that un-
cording to the most recent authorized burials without
measurements from the Survivors sit in front of buildings damaged by an earthquake, in Sarpol-e-Zahab, western Iran, certification could mean
U.S. Geological Survey. It hit Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the Iraq-Iran border the death toll was actually
at 9:48 p.m. Iran time, just region killed more than three hundred people in both countries, sent people fleeing their homes higher. In Iraq, the earth-
as people were going to into the night and was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast, authorities reported on Monday. quake killed at least seven
bed. (AP Photo/Omid Salehi) people and injured 535
The worst damage ap- sheared off by the quake, up field hospitals, although fected. others, all in the country’s
peared to be in the Kurdish power and water lines were many of the injured were Many of the heavily dam- northern, semiautonomous
town of Sarpol-e-Zahab in severed, and telephone moved to other cities, in- aged complexes in Sarpol- Kurdish region, according
the western Iranian prov- service was disrupted. cluding Tehran. e-Zahab were part of con- to its Interior Ministry.
ince of Kermanshah, which Residents dug frantically It also damaged an army struction projects under The disparity in the fatality
sits in the Zagros Mountains through wrecked buildings garrison and buildings in former hard-line President figures immediately drew
that divide Iran and Iraq. for survivors as they wailed. the border city and killed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. questions from Iranians, es-
Residents fled into the Firefighters from Tehran an unspecified number of The newly homeless slept pecially because so much
streets as the quake struck, joined other rescuers in the soldiers, according to re- outside in cold, huddled of the town was new.
without time to grab their desperate search, using ports. Iran’s Supreme Lead- around makeshift fires for The earthquake struck 14.4
possessions, as apartment dogs to inspect the rubble. er Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warmth, wrapped in blan- miles (23.2 kilometers) be-
complexes collapsed into The hospital in Sarpol-e- immediately dispatched kets — as were the dead. low the surface, a shal-
rubble. Outside walls of Zahab was heavily dam- all government and mili- The quake killed 407 peo- low depth that can have
some complexes were aged, and the army set tary forces to aid those af- ple in Iran and injured 7,156 broader damage. q

Spain warns EU about cyber-meddling suspicions in Catalonia

By LORNE COOK it’s not yet possible to de- ment ministers have been She said the number “is the signs don’t necessar-
Associated Press termine what their exact jailed, and the region’s changing every day. The ily mean the Russian gov-
BRUSSELS (AP) — Spain on source is or if the Russian ousted leader, Carles Puig- figure cannot be speci- ernment is involved, and
Monday warned its Euro- government is involved. demont, is in Brussels with fied.” Earlier, referring to it hasn’t made public any
pean Union partners about She said some of them are four associates fighting ex- a recent London meeting evidence to back the inter-
a disinformation campaign “repeated from Venezu- tradition to Spain for trial. between WikiLeaks found- ference claim.
aimed at destabilizing its elan territory.” They could face up to 30 er Julian Assange and a An analysis last month on
volatile northeast region of The Spanish government years in prison on charges prominent Catalan pro-in- the Russian talk show Vesti
Catalonia, which Madrid took control of Catalonia’s of rebellion, sedition and dependence figure, Span- Nedeli said that the view
claims appears to be com- powers and called a snap extortion. ish Foreign Minister Alfonso from some Russian televi-
ing from Russia. regional election for Dec. De Cospedal declined to Dastis said there were signs sion stations is that Europe
Spanish Defense Minister 21, after the Catalan gov- guess what impact the dis- that Assange and others is “falling apart” and that
Maria Dolores de Cospedal ernment held a banned in- information might be hav- “are trying to interfere and Spain is being compared
told reporters that “many dependence referendum ing on the election cam- manipulate” amid the Cat- to Ukraine, whose Crimean
of the actions come from on Oct. 1. paign or how big the fake alonia crisis. Peninsula was annexed by
Russian territory,” but that Several regional govern- news campaign might be. Spain said last week that Russian troops in 2014. q