Gunmen Attack Iran Police Station, Killing 11 

An Iranian woman walks past an Iranian flag painted on a wall in a street in Tehran on April 10, 2023. (AFP)
An Iranian woman walks past an Iranian flag painted on a wall in a street in Tehran on April 10, 2023. (AFP)
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Gunmen Attack Iran Police Station, Killing 11 

An Iranian woman walks past an Iranian flag painted on a wall in a street in Tehran on April 10, 2023. (AFP)
An Iranian woman walks past an Iranian flag painted on a wall in a street in Tehran on April 10, 2023. (AFP)

Baluch gunmen attacked a police station in southeastern Iran early on Friday, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several, state television said.

State media added that several members of the extremist Jaish al-Adl group were also killed in ensuing clashes in the town of Rask in the impoverished province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

The province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population, in contrast to most Iranians, who are Shiite.

It has long been the site of frequent clashes between security forces and Sunni militants, as well as drug smugglers.

Jaish al-Adl, which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in the province.



Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake Strikes China Near Source of Yellow River

A lake is seen near the headwaters of the Yellow River in Madoi county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China August 31, 2019. (Reuters)
A lake is seen near the headwaters of the Yellow River in Madoi county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China August 31, 2019. (Reuters)
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Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake Strikes China Near Source of Yellow River

A lake is seen near the headwaters of the Yellow River in Madoi county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China August 31, 2019. (Reuters)
A lake is seen near the headwaters of the Yellow River in Madoi county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China August 31, 2019. (Reuters)

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook parts of the Chinese province of Qinghai on Wednesday, with its epicenter located near the source of the Yellow River, the main natural waterway serving northern China.

The vast Qinghai-Tibetan plateau has been jolted by seismic activity since Tuesday, including a deadly 6.8-magnitude quake in the foothills of the Himalayas in Tibet and a smaller 3.1-magnitude quake in Sichuan.

The epicenter of the Qinghai quake, which struck at 3:44 p.m. (0844 GMT), was located in Madoi county in the Golog prefecture at a depth of 14 km (8.7 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

It was about 200 km west of the county seat of Madoi, a town populated mainly by Tibetans, including former nomadic herders and their families who have resettled in government-built homes over the years.

Earthquakes are common along the edges of the seismically active Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, including Madoi.

A total of 102 quakes of magnitude 3 or higher have been logged within 200 km of Wednesday's quake over the past five years, according to CENC, with the largest reaching a magnitude of 7.4 in 2021.

The epicenter of Qinghai quake on Wednesday is about 1,000 km northeast of the quake in Tibet a day earlier.