Large quantities of disaster relief supplies, including tents, prefabricated houses, and coal, arrived in batches in Baqen County of the city of Nagqu in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, which was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake a week ago.
Members of the People's Armed Police Force Xizang Corps raced against the clock to distribute 600 tons of coal to affected residents in Gangqie Township of Baqen County on Monday and Tuesday, to ensure that the residents can stay warm as a cold spell brought the minimum local temperature to minus 8 degrees Celsius.
As of 11:00 on Saturday, 52,450 items or sets of disaster relief supplies had been sent to the quake zone, including 4,651 tents, 2,000 prefabricated houses, 11,772 folding beds, 5,715 quilts and other cold-weather necessities.
Local authorities said that more than 12,000 residents were evacuated, and 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds were damaged or destroyed after the Oct 22 quake, which killed 16 people and injured 76 others.
Major relief supplies reach quake-hit Xizang residents
The cost of the U.S. military campaign against Iran has risen to at least 47 billion U.S. dollars, more than 25 percent higher than the Defense Department's estimate in July, the Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.
The latest estimate, compiled by the U.S. Central Command on Oct 16 and provided by the Pentagon to Congress last week, includes more than 29 billion U.S. dollars to replace expended munitions such as air defense interceptors and bombs.
More than 6 billion U.S. dollars would be needed to replace military equipment and so-called "platform losses," which include the loss of aircraft including many drones lost during the war, the Reuters reported, citing the Pentagon estimate.
The Air Force has spent 7.6 billion U.S. dollars since the United States and Israel launched joint military attacks on Iran on Feb 28, followed by the Army at 2.1 billion U.S. dollars and the Navy at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.
The estimate does not include the cost of damage to U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
U.S. military raises cost estimate of Iran war to 47 billion U.S. dollars
