5.1 magnitude earthquake hits Iran amid Israel war

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook northern Iran on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, as Israel pounded the country with repeated waves of air strikes.

The quake, which Iran’s Tasnim news agency said measured 5.2, struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) some 37 kilometres (23 miles) southwest of the city of Semnan, the USGS said.

The earthquake struck Iran alarmingly close to the country’s Fordow nuclear enrichment facility in Qom Province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The tremors from the quake were reportedly felt in the country’s capital, Tehran.

Semnan, the city listed as the epicenter of the earthquake, is located about 145 miles east of the capital of Iran. The shaking of the quake was considered light, with no damage felt.

It hit at the same time as an Israeli missile struck in the country’s southwest, according to local and nearby media outlets.

The strikes hit an Iranian air defense site called Magar in the Behmai province in the country’s southwest, ynetnews.com, an Israeli outlet, reported.

The strikes may have been the same strikes that took out three surface-to-surface missile launchers that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed were “prepared to fire a barrage of missiles toward Israel.”

A “cell” of Iranian commanders and soldiers was also eliminated, the IDF claimed in the tweet. “Additionally, a Remotely Piloted Aircraft identified a group of Iranian soldiers, including an IRGC base commander in western Iran responsible for 15 missile launchers, en route to carry out a launch. The cell was eliminated,” the IDF wrote.

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Credit: Vanguard Newspapers