6.2 Quake Jolts Southwestern Mexico, No Damage or Casualties

People wait outside their homes and buildings after an alarm sounded warning of a tremor, in Mexico City, Mexico, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Henry Romero
People wait outside their homes and buildings after an alarm sounded warning of a tremor, in Mexico City, Mexico, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Henry Romero
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6.2 Quake Jolts Southwestern Mexico, No Damage or Casualties

People wait outside their homes and buildings after an alarm sounded warning of a tremor, in Mexico City, Mexico, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Henry Romero
People wait outside their homes and buildings after an alarm sounded warning of a tremor, in Mexico City, Mexico, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Henry Romero

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck a region in southwestern Mexico early Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey, causing no serious damage or casualties.
It said the quake was centered 21 kilometers (13 miles) southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacán states at a depth of 34 kilometers (21 miles), The Associated Press reported.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on social media platform X that the quake prompted emergency response teams to review their protocol.
“There are no new developments,” she wrote. Mexico’s Social Security Institute said there were no reports of damage in the capital of Mexico City, some 600 kilometers (372 miles) east of the temblor's epicenter — near the mountainous village of Coalcomán, Michoacán.
Some people in Coalcomán and in Uruapan, the second largest city in Michoacán, posted surveillance footage on social media time-stamped at 2:32 a.m. local time that showed buildings sway and parked cars shake. Others reported that they ran into the streets to wait for the shaking to stop.
Mexico’s national seismological service said that as of 9 a.m. local time on Sunday, there had been 329 aftershocks. It put the magnitude at 6.1. It is not unusual for preliminary measurements to vary.
Mexico is no stranger to earthquakes because of its position near colliding sections of the earth’s crust. In the past 40 years, there have been at least seven magnitude 7 or greater temblors, killing around 10,000 people — most of them in a devastating 1985 8.0 quake.



Turkish Intelligence Captures Suspect in 2013 Southern Türkiye Attack

The site of the blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border
The site of the blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border
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Turkish Intelligence Captures Suspect in 2013 Southern Türkiye Attack

The site of the blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border
The site of the blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border

Türkiye’s intelligence agency captured a man suspected of perpetrating a 2013 bomb attack in the southern Hatay province that killed 53 people, Turkish security sources said on Monday.

The sources said the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) captured, in Syria, Mohammed Dib Korali, one of the perpetrators of the twin car bombs that ripped through the border town of Reyhanli on May 11, 2013.

The MIT said Dib Korali was arrested in a cross-border operation into Syria and handed over to Hatay police.

He was suspected of planning the attack and providing the bombs.

In mid-December, Turkish law enforcement captured Cengiz Sertel, also one of the perpetrators of the deadly 2013 terrorist attack. Sertel was wanted under a red bulletin and the orange category on the Turkish Interior Ministry's list of those wanted for terrorism.

Sertel was found to have transferred the explosives used in the attack in the Reyhanli district of Hatay province from Syria to Türkiye, according to a written statement by the provincial governor's office.

On June 30, 2022, the mastermind of the Reyhanli attacks, Mehmet Gezer, was arrested after being extradited from the United States.

His arrest came after Yusuf Nazik confessed that Gezer played a key role in the bombing. US authorities delivered Gezer, a drug lord sought on a red notice with different 17 charges, to Turkish police upon their arrival at Istanbul Airport.

Türkiye continues its arrest campaign against suspects in the twin car bombs, which it says are linked to a group loyal to Syria’s then-President Bashar al-Assad.

In February 2018, a Turkish court sentenced nine suspects to life imprisonment and 13 other people to prison terms of 10 to 15 years for the bombings.

Reyhanli is located on the nearest point to Syria’s Aleppo province. It became a flashpoint after Ankara supported armed opposition factions against the Assad regime, which fell on December 8.