ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A series of earthquakes, the strongest measuring around 5.0 in magnitude, struck Sulaimani province’s Garmiyan early Sunday, with tremors reported near the Iran-Iraq border, according to seismological officials. "Five earthquakes were recorded. The first quake measured 3.4 on the Richter scale at 3:14 am and its epicenter was at a depth of 15 kilometers," Mohammed Kamal, a meteorological and seismological forecaster in the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw. A magnitude 4.8 earthquake also struck near the Parvizkhan border crossing with Iran, the strongest of the series, at approximately 4:00 am. An aftershock of magnitude 3 also hit west of Sulaimani’s Kalar town, Kamal added. Iran’s state IRNA news agency reported a 5.1-magnitude earthquake at 4:30 am in Qasr e-Shirin in Kermanshah province, about 4 kilometers from the Parvizkhan border crossing with the Kurdistan Region. On Friday morning, a 3.1-magnitude earthquake also struck west of Halabja. "The earthquake was 5 kilometers deep and there was no damage and some of the residents of the area did not feel it,” Amir Jabri, spokesperson for Iraq’s meteorology department, then told Rudaw.
