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Germany Bans Group Accused of Iran Links and Hezbollah Support, Carries Out Raids 

24 July 2024, Hamburg: Police officers stand in front of the Islamic Center Hamburg with the Imam Ali Mosque (Blue Mosque) on the Outer Alster during a raid. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Hamburg: Police officers stand in front of the Islamic Center Hamburg with the Imam Ali Mosque (Blue Mosque) on the Outer Alster during a raid. (dpa)
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Germany Bans Group Accused of Iran Links and Hezbollah Support, Carries Out Raids 

24 July 2024, Hamburg: Police officers stand in front of the Islamic Center Hamburg with the Imam Ali Mosque (Blue Mosque) on the Outer Alster during a raid. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Hamburg: Police officers stand in front of the Islamic Center Hamburg with the Imam Ali Mosque (Blue Mosque) on the Outer Alster during a raid. (dpa)

The German government on Wednesday banned a Hamburg-based organization accused of promoting the Iranian leadership's ideology and supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group, as police raided 53 properties around the country.

The ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, and its various suborganizations elsewhere in Germany followed searches in November. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said material gathered in the investigation “confirmed the serious suspicions to such a degree that we ordered the ban today.”

The IZH promotes an “extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” while it and its sub-organizations “also support the terrorists of Hezbollah and spread aggressive antisemitism,” Faeser said in a statement.

Her ministry alleged that “as the direct representative of Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader’” and seeks to export the Iranian revolution to Germany.

The group, which runs a mosque in Hamburg, has long been under observation by Germany's domestic intelligence agency. The IZH said last fall that it “condemns every form of violence and extremism and has always advocated peace, tolerance and interreligious dialogue.”

The Interior Ministry said that because of the ban, four Shiite mosques in Germany will be closed. The IZH's assets are also being confiscated.

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Central Myanmar Shaken by New Quake

A man on motorcycle rides past a damaged building in Mandalay on April 13, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)
A man on motorcycle rides past a damaged building in Mandalay on April 13, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)
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Central Myanmar Shaken by New Quake

A man on motorcycle rides past a damaged building in Mandalay on April 13, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)
A man on motorcycle rides past a damaged building in Mandalay on April 13, 2025, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck on Sunday morning near Meiktila, a small city in central Myanmar, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake came as Myanmar is engaged in relief efforts following a massive 7.7 magnitude temblor that also hit the country's central region on March 28. The epicenter of the latest quake was roughly hallway between Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, which suffered enormous damage and casualties in last month's earthquake, and Naypyitaw, the capital, where several government offices were then damaged.
There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties caused by the new quake, one of the strongest of hundreds of aftershocks from the March 28 temblor, The Associated Press reported. As of Friday, the death toll from that quake was 3,649, with 5,018 injured, according to Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government.
Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said Sunday's quake occurred in the area of Wundwin township, 97 kilometers (60 miles) south of Mandalay, at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles). The US Geological Survey estimated the depth at 7.7 km (4.8 miles).
Two Wundwin residents told AP by phone the quake was so strong that people rushed out of buildings and that ceilings in some dwellings were damaged. A resident of Naypyitaw also reached by phone said he did not feel the latest quake. Those contacted asked not to be named for fear of angering the military government, which prefers to closely control information.
The United Nations last week warned that damage caused by the March 28 quake will worsen the existing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, where a civil war had already displaced more than 3 million people.
It said the quake severely disrupted agricultural production and that a health emergency loomed because many medical facilities in the quake zone were damaged or destroyed.
Sunday’s quake occurred on the morning of the first day of the country’s three-day Thingyan holiday, which celebrates the traditional New Year. Public festivities for the holiday had already been canceled.