Iran Sends Missiles to Iraqi Hezbollah in East Syria

Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
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Iran Sends Missiles to Iraqi Hezbollah in East Syria

Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

Short and medium range surface-to-surface Iranian missiles were delivered Friday to the Iraqi Hezbollah near the regime-controlled town of Al-Tabani in the western countryside of Syria’s Deir Ezzor province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 56 missiles were delivered to the Hezbollah sites in civilian trucks via unofficial crossings between Syria and Iraq.

Earlier this month, SOHR activists had monitored the Afghan Fatimiyoun Brigade unloading a weapons shipment from four large trucks used for transporting vegetables and fruits.

The trucks were loaded with Iranian-made missiles, coming from Iraq. The shipments were stored in commercial warehouses rented from civilians in the area of Kua Ibn Aswad, located between Al-Mayadeen city and Mahakan town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

Iranian militias and their supporters are based in positions in Deir Ezzor’s countryside, but they make redeployments from time to time over fear of Israeli airstrikes and unidentified US-led coalition aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Cultural Center won Friday a bid to invest in Al-Nour private hospital in Deir Ezzor city, which belongs to a doctor who has sought asylum in a European country.

The Syrian regime had confiscated the hospital and the doctor’s properties. The center won the bid to operate the hospital in return for 15 million Syrian pounds a year. It has started rehabilitating for reopening.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Hezbollah started recruiting new volunteers at its base in the rural development department building of Deir Ezzor’s Harabish neighborhood. The Party announced that it would give the new recruits monthly salaries of $150 each, exploiting the economic hardship and dire living conditions.

A large number of volunteers applied to join Hezbollah's ranks, seeing the offer as a good deal compared to the wages of regime soldiers and other loyalists, the Observatory said.



Tsunami Alert Lifted after Magnitude 6.7 Earthquake Rattles Southwestern Japan

 Staff clean up shattered and scattered glass caused by the earthquake at JR Miyazaki Airport Station, in Miyazaki, in southwestern Japan, Monday Jan. 13, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
Staff clean up shattered and scattered glass caused by the earthquake at JR Miyazaki Airport Station, in Miyazaki, in southwestern Japan, Monday Jan. 13, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
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Tsunami Alert Lifted after Magnitude 6.7 Earthquake Rattles Southwestern Japan

 Staff clean up shattered and scattered glass caused by the earthquake at JR Miyazaki Airport Station, in Miyazaki, in southwestern Japan, Monday Jan. 13, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
Staff clean up shattered and scattered glass caused by the earthquake at JR Miyazaki Airport Station, in Miyazaki, in southwestern Japan, Monday Jan. 13, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)

Japan issued a tsunami advisory on Monday after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the southwest of the country. The public warnings to stay away from coastal areas were later lifted.

The agency initially gave the magnitude estimate at 6.9, but later revised it down. There were no immediate reports of damage. Residents in some coastal areas were told to evacuate as a precautionary measure.

One man was slightly injured in Kyushu after falling down some stairs, NHK TV reported. Trains stopped running in Miyazaki Station, stranding passengers.

NHK said a tsunami, estimated to be as high as 1 meter (3.2 feet), reached land within 30 minutes of the quake. The waters detected at Miyazaki Port measured 20 centimeters (0.7 feet) high, the reports said.

Tsunami advisories were issued for Miyazaki prefecture, where the quake was centered, in the southwestern island of Kyushu, as well as nearby Kochi prefecture in Shikoku island, shortly after the quake struck at 9:19 p.m. according to the agency. They were all called off shortly before midnight.

People were warned to stay away from the waters, including rivers. Agency official Shigeki Aoki told reporters that people should watch for landslides as well as falling objects in homes. Aftershocks are possible, especially in the next two or three days, he said.

The quake, centered at a depth of 30 kilometers (18.6 miles), shook a wide area in Kyushu, the southwestern main island, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

NHK TV footage showed moving traffic and well-lit streets, meaning that electric power was still working. No problems were detected at the various monitoring posts for nuclear plants in the area.

Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes due to its location along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Experts at the meteorological agency met late Monday to gauge how the latest temblor may be related to the so-called Nankai Trough quakes, but decided not to take any extraordinary measures for the time being. The term refers to a wide region believed to be prone to periodic major quakes.

A Nankai Trough quake off Shikoku in 1946 killed more than 1,300 people. The area was hit by a 7.1 magnitude quake in August last year.