At Least 75 Killed, Many More Trapped and Injured After Magnitude 7.2 Quake Rocks Eastern Turkey

AFP Photo

At least 75 people were reported killed and many more feared trapped in collapsed buildings after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake jolted the mountainous province of Van in southeastern Turkey on Sunday.

Up to 30 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.

Rescuers in Ercis scrambled to find survivors in a flattened eight-story building that had shops on the ground floor, television footage showed. Residents sobbed outside the ruins, hoping that missing relatives would be rescued.

"My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!" CNN-Turk television showed one young man crying.

Witnesses said eight people were rescued from the rubble, but frequent aftershocks were hampering search efforts, CNN-Turk reported.

"There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction," Zulfikar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told NTV television. "We need urgent aid. We need medics."

The quake's epicenter was in the village of Tabanli, 10 miles from Van.

Between the aftershocks and the number of people feared trapped in some of the collapsed buildings, the death toll is expected to rise. Authorities had no word on damages or casualties from the remote villages in the region, but local officials beginning to assess damage via helicopter.

Libya's Interim Prime Minister: Ghdaffi is Dead

The Prime minister for Libya's interim government announced today that Libyan strongman Mummar Ghdaffi has been killed by rebel fighters in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

Qaddafi died of wounds suffered during his capture near his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, according to a spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC).

"Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.

Earlier, a man who claimed to have witnessed the attack told the Associated Press Television News that he struck Qaddafi with his shoes after he was shot.

Footage aired on Arabian TV showed a captured and wounded Ghdaffi bleeding as he was pinned against a truck's hood before being jostled and shoved by rebel fighters who were firing into the air and shouting "Allahu Akhbar! [God is Great]".

Now, before we get all warm and fuzzy [dare I say hopey-changey? NANESB!] lets not forget that an exiled Libyan Jew who was working to restore a Tripoli synagogue was threatened by masked men brandishing rifles earlier this month. There is also the matter of Libyan rebels arbitrarily rounding up and detaining black men and as many as 20,000 Russian-made shoulder-launched missiles in Ghdaffi's military arsenal that are now unaccounted for.

Still, the Libyan dictator's demise comes as not only good news to a number of Libyans, but also the family members of those killed in Lockerbie, Scotland when Libyan agents blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. Five Bulgarian nurses who were working in Libya before being detained by the Ghdaffy regime in 1999 and accused of deliberately infecting children with HIV in a show trial also welcomed the news of Ghdaffi's demise. In 2007 Mummar Ghdaffi's son admitted that the nurses were tortured in order to obtain a confession.


Exit question- what exactly is the status of Ghdaffi's all 'Grrrl' bodyguard squad? Were they captured or die with their leader in Sirte? I get the feeling the smarter of the Ghdaffi 'Grrl Power' squad are currently referred to as 'Rebel/Interim Government spokeswoman'.

UPDATE: This slideshow from Al-Bawaba offers some insight into the women of Ghdaffi's inner circle- both Arab and European- leading up to the civil war, including the bodyguard squad.