Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
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Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)

At least three people were killed and hundreds were injured as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night.

The earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local time, citing the Iranian Seismological Center in Tehran.

"This incident has left 816 injured and three dead," West Azerbaijan governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency, revising up an earlier toll of two dead and 580 injured.

Following the quake, Iran's minister of interior and chief of the Red Crescent Society traveled to Khoy.

Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.

On January 18, a 5.8 quake near Khoy left hundreds injured.

In February 2020, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that rattled the western village of Habash-e Olya killed at least nine people over the border in neighboring Türkiye.

Iran’s deadliest recorded quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the country’s north, injured 300,000, and left half a million homeless.



Study: Highest Number of Conflicts Worldwide in 2024 Since 1946

Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, during their funeral in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, during their funeral in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Study: Highest Number of Conflicts Worldwide in 2024 Since 1946

Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, during their funeral in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians mourn their relatives who were killed in an Israeli military strike on Gaza, during their funeral in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The world saw the highest number of armed conflicts in almost 80 years in 2024, dethroning 2023 as a record year, a Norwegian study published Wednesday showed, highlighting the risks linked to a US disengagement.

Last year, 61 conflicts were registered in the world across 36 countries, with some countries experiencing several simultaneous conflicts, the report by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said.

In 2023, there were 59 conflicts in 34 countries, AFP reported.

"This is not just a spike -- it's a structural shift," said Siri Aas Rustad, the main author of the report which covers trends in armed conflicts in the period 1946-2024.

"The world today is far more violent, and far more fragmented, than it was a decade ago," she said.

Africa remained the most ravaged continent, with 28 conflicts involving at least one state, followed by Asia with 17, the Middle East with 10, Europe with three and the Americas with two.

More than half of these countries experienced two or more conflicts.

The number of deaths resulting from fighting remained around the same level as in 2023, at about 129,000, making 2024 the fourth-deadliest year since the end of the Cold War in 1989, the study said.

The death toll was led by the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, as well as clashes in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

"Now is not the time for the United States -– or any global power -– to retreat from international engagement," Rustad said.

"Isolationism in the face of rising global violence would be a profound mistake with long-term human life consequences," she said, a reference to US President Donald Trump's "America First" campaign.

"It is a mistake to assume the world can look away. Whether under President Trump or any future administration, abandoning global solidarity now would mean walking away from the very stability the US helped build after 1945," she said.

The study is based on data compiled by Sweden's Uppsala University.