Earthquakes Injure Hundreds in Iran; Nuclear Sites Not Damaged

Two powerful earthquakes devastated northern and southern areas of Iran late Friday night and Saturday, but the stricken areas did not include the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.

At least one person was killed, and 300 others were injured. The first earthquake, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, struck shortly before midnight Friday and was followed by 11 aftershocks. An estimated one-third of the buildings in four villages were demolished.

A second quake in the north, measuring 5.8, struck approximately 600 miles south of Tehran damaging hundreds of homes.

The Bushehr nuclear facility, which Iran says will begin operating next month, is located several hundred miles west of Kerman, one of the areas devastated by the earthquakes.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and experiences at least one light earthquake everyday, while occasionally suffering mass casualty quakes, such as the one that killed an estimated 30,000 people in 2003.

The official Iranian News Agency quoted one Red Crescent official as saying there was a danger of worse earthquakes because one of the two quakes Friday night and Saturday was not followed by aftershocks.

Iran’s nuclear sites are scattered throughout the country, and many of them are built deep underground to make them more difficult targets for an aerial military strike by Israel or the United States.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)