[freedom44]

Earthquakes strike killing good people of Iran, when will earthquake strike and kill off the Islamist, Facist Mullah pigs?

[Paul Atreides]

An earthquake has struck southeastern Iran...

...near the city of Bam!

[NYC GOP Chick]

Earthquake Strikes Iran, U.S. Says

wow. I, for one, did not realize that we're that powerful. I wonder if we can convince them that it's a message from allah, telling them to give up the nuke program and that the mullahs should surrender immediately...

[nuconvert]

[No Blue States]

"The earthquake hit at 5:27 a.m. local time Friday —"

For a few seconds some Iranian Mullahs thought the sum of all their fears had materialized at the hand of Israel.

Hopefully only they and their kind were injured.

[nuconvert]

Magnitude 5.4 - SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
2003 December 26 03:06:16 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A moderate earthquake occurred at 03:06:16 (UTC) on Friday, December 26, 2003. The magnitude 5.4 event has been located in SOUTHEASTERN IRAN. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)


Magnitude 5.4
Date-Time Friday, December 26, 2003 at 03:06:16 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Friday, December 26, 2003 at 6:36:16 AM
= local time at epicenter

Location 28.861°N, 58.322°E
Depth 33 km (21 miles) set by location program
Region SOUTHEASTERN IRAN
Distances
200 km (125 miles) SE of Kerman, Iran
260 km (160 miles) WSW of Zahedan, Iran
265 km (165 miles) ESE of Sirjan, Iran
990 km (620 miles) SE of TEHRAN, Iran

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 8.5 km (5.3 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst= 39, Nph= 39, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp= 79°,
M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

Event ID uscvag

[tubebender]

This says it was a 6.7... http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/uscvad.htm

[nuconvert]

2 quakes
8:56 and 10:06PM EST (6.7 and 5.4 respectively)

[sheik yerbouty]

It is the will of Allah! Mekhtoub!

[Grig]

Any chance this could have been an underground nuke test?

[Indie]

The fist of the one true God.

[AdmSmith]

Pictures of the completely destroyed 2000 year old destroyed buildings: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1046743/posts?page=5#5

[JustPiper]

They said the death toll could reach 10,000

[leadpenny]

Iranian Quake Deaths Could Reach 10,000
15 minutes ago

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - A severe earthquake devastated the historic city of Bam in southeast Iran on Friday, and a preliminary estimate said the death toll could reach 10,000.

Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the quake occurred, said there was still no precise number of dead from the magnitude 6.7 quake, but officials working in Bam had given him that figure.

"The quake hit the city when most of the people were in bed, raising fears that the death toll may go higher," he said.

Officials surveying the city of 80,000 people from helicopter said about 60 percent of the city's houses were destroyed, Khoshrou said. Water, power and phone lines were cut. The earthquake struck at about 5:30 a.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) reported the quake's magnitude was 6.7, capable of causing severe damage. It reported an aftershock of magnitude 5.4 about two hours later.

Authorities in Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, put out a call for blood donations.

"Many people have died," Kerman province Gov. Mohammad Ali Karimi told state media. "Many people are buried under the rubble."

Relief teams set up their headquarters in a public square in Bam because their offices in the governor's building had been ruined, Karimi told state radio.

Karimi said worried relatives from surrounding areas were heading to Bam and causing massive traffic jams that were slowing rescue efforts. He urged them to stay home and wait until phone service was restored to try to find relatives.

Reports said the earthquake destroyed Bam's medieval fortress, a massive, 2,000-year-old structure that sits on a cliff near the city and attracts thousands of tourists each year. The fortress includes scores of ancient mud huts.

"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," said Mehran Nourbakhsh, chief spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross.

Authorities have sent numerous rescue workers with helicopters to the area, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"We are doing everything we can to rescue the injured and unearth the dead," television quoted Karimi as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) expressed his condolences over the earthquake.

In a telegram to Iranian President Mohamed Khatami, Putin said he was "deeply shocked by an earthquake in Iran that brought numerous victims and destruction" and offered his "sincere condolences to the leadership and people of Iran."

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina said that two Il-76 transport aircraft with rescue workers and equipment were to leave for Iran later Friday.

Hardly any buildings in Iran are built to withstand earthquakes, although the country sits on several major faultlines and temblors are frequent. An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 to 7.7 killed 50,000 people on June 21, 1990, and most recently, a magnitude 6 quake in June, 2002 killed 500 people.

Also Friday, a magnitude 4 quake rocked the west Iranian town of Masjid Soleiman at 8:10 a.m., but no casualties were immediately reported, state television said. Masjid Soleiman is about 600 miles northwest of Bam.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

I can't find any joy in this tragedy since the people of Iran are seeking freedom just as much as the people of Iraq whom we recently liberated. God help them.

[varon]

Earthquake Strikes Iran, U.S. Says

Wow, how did the CIA manage that? ;-)

[DB]

CNN is reporting possibly 20,000 dead or more.

[Spok]

How WILL the Mullah's explain this one?

[Imal]

I could say something cute like "HAARP on target", but the truth is that a lot of good people died tonight, and my heart and prayers are with the victims and their families.

[StolarStorm]

Time to send in several hundred thousand troops to assist in the clean up and to provide humanitarian services... and incidently to arrest the mullah dictators.