Last week, Italian Aeronautica Militare Eurofighter Typhoons intercepted a TU-134 “Black Pearl” over the Baltic Sea while taking part in their routine Baltic Air Policing (BAP). The Black Pearl is a pretty rare sight only spotted in the Baltic twice since 2020. “Black Pearl” is the name given to the plane by western military analysts, its actual NATO designation is “Crusty-B”.
The Typhoons were stationed at Ämari Air Base in Estonia. They recently replaced the Italian F-35’s that were stationed at the same base. The Italians are taking part in the multinational NATO operation Eastern Sentry.
The TU-134 “Black Pearl” accompanied by two Su-30SM2 and a SU-24.
At the time of interception of “The Black Pearl”, a modified version of the civilian Tupolev TU-134, the district plane was being accompanied by two Sukhoi Su-30SM2 “Flankers” and what is believed to be a Su-24MR “Fencer”. The “Flankers” are operated by the Russian Navy, while the “Fencer” is from the Russian Air Force.
Sukhoi Su-24 Flanker. Italian Typhoon tailing the two SU-30’s.
The Black Pearl is a Tu-134UBL (now Tu-134A-4 VIP transport) that was at one time used to train pilots and navigators of Russia’s strategic bomber forces. Anything from the Tu- 160’s to the Tu-22M3 and Tu-95MS. The Russians added a very sharply pointed, bomber-like nose and a black paint job. The jet is now mostly used as a VIP transport. As it was encountered over the Baltic it’s likely it was hauling Russian VIPs to the Russian enclave in Kaliningrade.
NATO air command shared the images on November 21st, but implied that the images weren’t taken that day.
Over the last week 🇮🇹 jets deployed at Amari 🇪🇪scrambled to intercept multiple 🇷🇺 assets. NATO Air Policing in the Baltic region ensures security of @NATO airspace under Eastern Sentry#EasternSentry is enhancing flexibility and strength to NATO's posture on the eastern flank pic.twitter.com/UElLnTi7VJ
The plane was intercepted in 2020 by F-16’s from the Belgium Air Force that were also conducting a BAP. They managed to capture an inferred image of the plane from the F-16’s Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod.
IR imagery of the Black Pearl taken from the Sniper pod of a Bulgarian F-16.
The Black Pearl is an interesting variant of an aircraft that you don’t see very much anynore.
It’s believed the Black Pearl was shepherding the fighters for delivery to the 4th Guards Naval Assault Aviation Regiment of the 34th Mixed Aviation Division, assigned to Baltic Fleet Aviation and based at Chernyakhovsk Air Base in Kaliningrad, according to KEY.AERO.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that the Russian federation is responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijani Airlines, Flight 8243 on Christmas Day 2024.
The plane, an Embaer 190 took off from Heydar Aliyev International Airport carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew.
The flight first experienced issues about 40 minutes after takeoff when it first entered the Russian airspace around Grozny. The pilots reported losing GPS navigational systems, due to jamming. The plane continued its approach at the Kadyrov Grozny International Airport in the Chechen capital. At this time the pilots reported twice tried to land at Grozny but were ultimately diverted due to fog. 81 minutes into the flight, and while the plane was still over Grozny, passengers at this time reported an explosion and shrapnel striking the aircraft. The pilots thought they had experienced a bird strike and proceeded to initiate emergency protocols and squawked 7700, which signals to others that the flight is experiencing an emergency. They then turned back towards the Caspian Sea.
The plane made it across the Caspian and back to Azerbaijan but the pilots were not able to maintain control of the aircraft while trying to put it down in Baku. Video from the ground showed the plane changing altitude at a very quick rate as the plane pitched up and down as the pilots fought to bring the plane down with increasingly unresponsive controls.
Video from the crash of Azerbaijani Airlines Flight 8243.
The plane ultimately crashed, bursting into a large fireball and split in half. Of the 67 people on board, 38 were killed. Almost immediately after the crash there were questions. What actually happened to flight 8243?
Photos from the crash showed damage not consistent with a bird strike. Damage to the tail looked more like the damage from the explosion of an air defense missile. In fact, several passengers had been injured from shrapnel from the explosion.
An image from the crash. The tail of the plane shows shrapnel damage.
Russia right away denied that this had happened. Several days later The New York Times put out a report which stated that Azerbaijani investigators believed that a Russian Pantsir S-1 had actually shot the plane. On February 4th, investigators found fragments from a Pantsir S-1 missile inside the airplane’s fuselage.
At the time the plane was attempting to land the city was under warning as Ukrainian drones had been spotted in the area and shot down.
On December 28th Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the “tragic incident” although he didn’t elaborate further on the incident.
Today the Russian president, speaking with the Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, admitted to him that Russian air defense was responsible for the crash and that two Russian air defense missiles had exploded near the plane.
The Russian President very rarely admits to mistakes by his military. More than a decade after a Malaysian flight was brought down over Ukraine by Russian defense systems, Putin still denies Russian involvement.
The previous denial of the Russian involvement in the Azerbaijani airlines flight has caused some tension between Russian and Azerbaijan causing Aliyev to become increasingly critical of Moscow, even offering support to Ukraine and condemning what he called the “soviet occupation” of Azerbaijan. Some in the country were even calling for the relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan to be cut. It’s likely this admission of guilt by the Russian leadership is more about saving the relationship with an increasingly strong ally.
On Wednesday night, September 17,2025, a helicopter crashed near the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
“Joint Base Lewis-McChord confirms that a helicopter crashed on the evening of Sept. 17 in a rural area near the installation,” said Scot Keith, JBLM Garrison Public Affairs Officer. “The incident occurred at approximately 9 p.m.PDT. This remains a developing situation, and no additional details are available at this time.”
Civilian and military search and rescue crews responded to an area around Summit Lake, about 35 miles west of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near to where the military said they lost contact with their helicopter and.
“Deputies have located what is believed to be the scene. We have been advised that the military lost contact with a helicopter in the area, and we are working closely with JBLM to deploy any resources needed to assist.” wrote the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department on its Facebook page.
Later on Wednesday night, in a separate post, the sheriff said that deputies that had first responded and found the crash site had to stop rescue efforts because of the heat from the scene melting their shoes.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a combined Army/Airforce base about 10 miles south of Tacoma. The 16th Combat Aviation Brigade operates out of Gray Army Airfield on the south end of the base. The unit is part of the 7th Infantry Division and I Corps, both of which have their headquarters at the base. While we don’t for sure know what kind of helicopter crashed. We know that the brigade flies the AH-64E Apache, CH-47 Chinook, and UH-60 Black Hawk. Civilians in the comment section of the sheriff’s department’s facebook post mentioned that at the stated time of the crash, that they had seen either a Blackhawk or an Apache.
This is an ongoing situation still however it’s not looking good for the crew. The crash is the suspected cause of a several acre fire that the rescue crews had to battle.
New information received as I was finishing this article reveal that the helicopter involved was a MH-60M “Black Hawk”with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), also known as the Night Stalkers. The Night Stalkers are some of the best of the best in helicopter aviation and are the guys called when the Seal Teams or Delta or any of those black ops guys need a lift. If this wasn’t a mechanical issue it could probably be attributed to the type of flying required by these guys. Low flying at high speeds comes to mind when I think of the kind of training being done by these guys, so as sad as it is, these things are bound to happen sometimes. People often forget about how dangerous training can be even when carried out far away from a battleground.
Early reports are coming out about a US Navy F-35C that has crashed in the area. The jet was out of Naval Air Station Lemoore in Central California and was apart of VFA-125, The ‘Rough Riders’. VFA-125 is a training squadron.
Details are still coming in but CBS news reports that the crash happened sometimes around 6:30 PM in a small field near West Cadillac and South Dickinson street. Fire fighters announced later that 10 acres of grass had been burned.
We have no info on what caused the accident but we do know that the pilot safely ejected.
In connection to the sudden large wave of aerial refueling tankers spotted leaving the continental US and heading East over the Atlantic and into Europe, the US has announced it is deploying several fighter squads into the Middle East.
According to reports the fighters have already left and likely have already arrived.
Statement released on social media from SECDEF Pete HegsethThe tankers as they left the US and headed across the Atlantic. Final landing position.
The tankers were previously spotted on the publicly available ADS-B where their location can be tracked so long as the military pilots leave it on. The capability to turn it off is included for missions of a more secret nature. The fact that the locations are turned on is an indication that US military leadership knows people are watching and is attempting to deter any potential enemy’s (Iran). Around 39 tankers total have left from the U.S. since July 15th.
Tankers location as of an hour ago.
The F-22 are reported to have been launched or are preparing to launch from Langley AOR force base in Virginia. Langley houses 3 F-22 squadrons, the 1st Fighter Wing and 192nd Fighter Wing. We don’t yet know if the F-22s have left yet but we do know that a l C-17 Globemaster III landed at RAF Mildenhall rhat had departed from Langley.
The C-17 Globemaster III that landed at RAF Mildenhall on Jun. 17, 2025
While the C-17 isnt a tanker these massive general cargo planes are used when a squadron or similar moves to a new location. It would be hauling weapons and some of the other administrative equipment needed. More of these flights are likely on the way.
The F-35’s are believed to be either the Vermont Air National Guard or the 48th FW at RAF Lakenheath, in the UK. The 48th is the only F-35 squadron currently foward deployed so their proximity means they would arrive much sooner and be available for mission tasking as soon as you can load them up.
I don’t have much more than that for now but it looking more likely that the U.S. is going to get involved in Israel and Irans fighting. Well more so than they already are. It’s a fact that Israel has already had US military support in this conflict but up until this point that support has been purely defensive. U.S. assets have assisted in downing drones and missiles coming from Iran.
Reuters put out an article about this as well, their writer claimed to have talked to 3 defense department officials, 2 of them stresses the defensive nature of sending these fighters.
I’ve reached out to several of the squadrons mentioned as well as the pentagon for a statement, however nobody has got back to me, I’ll update if they do.
One other thing I’ll mention is the rumor of f-16s also being moved to the Middle East out of Italy but I have less info on that.
The U.S. currently has around 40,000 soldiers in the Middle East. That’s combined everybody from air force to infantry and all the logistics and support crew jn between .
Thank you for reading! I’m always available for questions or comments and can be reached by email or through any of my social media pages. Your support helps grow this page as well as supports independent journalism and reporting. I’d also like to thank the people who send me tips and heads ups, as well as other reporters who I sourced to help write this any many other articles. Journalism is a team effort in the end. I’ve always felt it’s not about being first it’s about being right. Any spelling mistakes are there to give the article character.
On Sunday, we reported on a major covert drone attack carried out by Ukraine on Russian airbases across the country destroying a not insignificant percentage of Russia’s long range strategic bomber fleet. This attack stunned Moscow as well as western leaders who by all accounts weren’t made aware of the strike beforehand.
‘Operation Spiderweb’, the name given to the operation was carried out using semi trucks that were loaded up with a reported 117 drones total. The drones were used to target 4-5 different airbases spread all over Russia with the furthest being in Siberia.
The trailers on the semi trucks were each disguised as sheds being hauled. When parked near their targets the roof was activated remotely and would slid off allowing the drones inside to be piloted remotely into their targets. Ukraine has done mass drone attacks before, often even but drones launched from Ukraine have to travel much further and are at a greater danger of being shot down by Russian Air Defense.
Image released by Ukrainian security services shows the back of the trucks which were used as makeshift drone carriers.
The drivers of the trucks were all Russian truck drivers contracted out by one (or several guys) using the name Artyom. They were contacted with delivery instructions and all had similar stories about getting to their drop off point and then the roof sliding off and drones started flying out. Russia is still investigating.
Let’s go over each of the airbases and look at the numbers for Russian loses as best we can. These numbers are all based on satellite images received as well as open source information. Take the following breakdown for what it’s worth, an analysis done with less than an optimal amount of data.
Before we jump in I’ll link to some videos one from the day of the attack and the other released today which has some more data we can use and is almost 5 minutes long.
Here is the first.
Video shows the first footage most were shown of Operation Spider Web.
Belaya Airbase. Probably the hardest hit of the airbases.
This video was released the day after the attack and shows strikes from all of the bases. A lot of the analysis I’m doing here will include things seen in this video.
Olenya Air Base
Olenya Air Base directly after the drone attack.
On the Kola Peninsula, Air Base Olenya is an important part of Russia’s military operations. The bases aircraft are mostly made up with a collection of Sukhoi Su-24 and Tupolev Tu-95s.
Most recent Google Earth Image from Olenya Air Base.Most recent imagery shows a line of TU-95This image is from Olenya but more recent than the Google earth inages.
After Ukraine’s attack images look a bit different.
The below shows the wider view in the aftermath of the attack .
After looking at this data as well as the video clips of the attacks it’s believed that at least 4 Russian Tu-95 bombers were destroyed at Olenya air base along with one An-12 transport aircraft.
Online sleuths have pointed out that in the video released after the attack you can see that at least one of the Tu-95’s had already been loaded with Kh-101 cruise missile. These bombers among others have been responsible for the recent missile wave attacks launched at Ukraine and her city’s. Some of the largest missile and drone attacks of the war have been carried out in the past 2 weeks.
Alleged Russian cruise missile spotted during operation spiderweb.
Ivanovo
Ivanovo Severny Air base houses the 144th AEW&C regiment as well as rhe 610th Combat Use and Retraining Center for Military Transport Aviation.. The Ivanovo airbase houses a number of retired A-50 (and possibly active A-50’s) as well as transport aircraft like the Il-76. The video shows two A-50s being struck however I don’t know if these are the operational A-50s. Now we know Ukraine watched and planned this mission for a year and a half. I would like to think they wouldn’t waste the time attacking an airfield that holds nothing except some old parts planes. They had great Intel for this operation so it’s possible but I wanted to at least mention the uncertainty.
Two images from a drone on the day of the strikes. These planes are covered in tires and other things used to break up line of sight for drones. Russia often uses tires for this purpose.
Dyagilevo air base
Of all the airbases. This is the one I have the least data for. I’ve yet to see satellite imagery from after the attack so I’ll just go by the video. It seems that a number of Tu-22s were targeted. At least 4 possibly more however I did notice that some of the planes shown in the video were struck multiple times. Will update this if I can get more info.
Belaya
Belaya air base in theUsolsky District, Irkutsk Oblast was hit pretty aggressively compared to the others.
The base houses two types of Russias strategic bombers with the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Brest Red Banner Order of Suvorov Regiment using Tu-22M3, the 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment with the Tu-22M3 and the 181st Independent Composite Aviation Squadron with the Antinov A-12 and A-30. Present at the base during the attack were also Tu-95s.
This is the before shot of the airbase. Included fkr comparison with the after shot. This base has several decoy parking slots used to fool drones and satellites. That being said the paint for the decoys is very old so it’s fairly easy to spot. Sat images done by Planet labs.The shot after Operation Spiderweb. Sat images done by Planet labs.
If my math is correct this airbase lost at least a solid 4 Tu-22’s, those are the ones that I can see, from the images, burned up and are completely destroyed. The video m of the attack shows multiple other Tu-22s that were targeted making me think that there is a good chance that some were damaged and need repaired or are not recoverable but we just can’t see it. So for now I’m sticking with 4 but it has an asterisk.
I’m not counting this one, which is an obvious decoy. The fake wreckage might have fooled me but I’ve seen this base before. Pictures of this spot exist prior to the operation.
The image with the decoy shows 2 of the 3 completely destroyed Tu-95’s. There is one more further down the runway which can be seen in the imagery and is shown to be struck in the video.
Afterthoughts
This attack will go down as one of Ukraines highlight moments in the war, showing a weakness in Russia’s current method of parking their airplanes.
The line of B-52 Stratofortress at Anderson AFB.
However. While my own country of the U.S. does have Hardened Aircraft Shelters, they are usually only found being used on the frontlines areas like the Middle East or in The Pacific. Protecting those w deployed assets is extremely important but it’s becoming increasingly glaring that some day, one of the US’s enemy’s could stage a similar attack, knocking out multiple squadrons of long range bombers before anybody even knows what’s happening. China on the other hand has been ahead of the game in this field building vast hundreds of these shelters for their air fleets. China who also happens to be in the forefront of drone warfare and combat tech. Could it be thag China sees a threat because they know the possibility’s of what rcan be accomplished with drones?
The opening of a Hardened aircraft shelter located in South Korea.
I’d like to thank everybody who provided imagery for this, especially planet labs who allows me to be on their mailing list to receive these images when something big happens. That was a nice surprise after I started trying to find sat images to find them in my email.
Yesterday on May 29th, 2025, a South Korea Lockheed P-3 Orion MPA took off from its Pohang base at 1:43PM and crashed shortly after takeoff. The South Korean Navy after getting responders to the site of the crash, a crash which was caught partially on video, annonced that all 4 of the crew had died in the crash and subsequent explosion.
Still image taken from the video showing the crash of the P-3.
The South Korean Navy is conducting an investigation into why the plane went down appointing the vice chief of naval operations to investigate the incident.
From what we know from the preliminary information It seems after takeoff for a routine training mission the crew of 4 had issues with the plane and attempted to bring it back in for a landing. Not being able to make it back to the airfield the crew seems to have made the decision to put it down into a less dense area striking what looks like the outskirts of a farm.
Scott here.The crew should be commended for managing to get the plane over a less populated area than where they were when it appears problems with the plane started. They saved alot of lives not letting this plane crabs into the many residential areas around here. Just several hundred feet from where they crashed is a large apartment complex.
Close approximation of where the plane crashed. These apartments appeared in a lot of the footage locals were taking of the crash which helped with geolocation efforts.
This crash sadly ends the 30 year safety record for the aging but still reliable P-3 Orion. This plane has seen decades of use as a maritime patrol plane as well as a capable ASW (Anti-Submarine warfare) hunter. The plane can be loaded up with dozens of sonar bouy’s which can detect subs as well as the torpedos and depth charges which can be dropped once an enemy sub has been detected. The Orion also has the ability to carry several Harpoon Anti-Ship missiles.
The South Koreans originally acquired 8 P-3C aircraft but liked them so much they latwr doubled that by adding 8 more P-3CK variants (P-3B variants thag were modified by South Korean).
While the investigation is still ongoing for a cause defense analyst have noted the immense strain put on these craft as the South Korean Navy only have a limited number compared to say Japan who operate around 100 of them. This offers broader coverage as well as the increased availability for these planes to rotate through maintenance.
Overview of the area.
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This article was fun to write as I was able to get back into geolocation. Nobody online,to my knowledge, had yet worked out the crash site. Usually I’m able to check my work with one of the Geolocation experts but no luck this time.
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The U.S. navy confirmed moments ago that an F/A-18 Super Hornet assigned to the USS Harry S. Truman and Carrier Air Wing 1 has been lost overseas during a towing operation in the carriers hanger bay. The super Hornet is a single seat fighter from the Knight Hawks” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 136.
The aircraft was being towed around the hanger when the tow crew lost control of the aircraft and tractor and both were lost overboard.
“Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard. An investigation is underway.”
-Statement from the Navy
Stock photo showing an F/A-18 and one of the towing tractors.
According to the statement no sailers were lost however one was injured in the incident. The carrier and her strike group remain mission capable and will continue operations in the Red Sea. For the past months the Red Sea has been the site of major operations against Houthi forces who have attacked international shipping. US forces have struck upwards of 800 targets over the course of the last month.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un revealed the country’s new airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) jet at an event at Pyongyang International Airport.
The plane is designed around the body of a Ilyushin Il-76 Candid, the same plane used for the Russian’s Beriev A-50 “Mainstay” and the Chinese Shaanxi KJ-2000 “Mainring”. The name of the new North Korean airplane has not been released as of yet.
Russian “Mainstay “ flanked by two Russian MiG-31’s.Chinese “Mainring”
One thing noticed about the North Korean version of this aircraft is that it lacks the normal amount of antenna one would usually expect in these types of planes. This could signal a lack of features found in Russian and Chinese version. Another difference, at least to the Russian Mainstay is that the radome on top does not spin. This is similar to the Chinese version. Fixed radomes like this house 3 fixed phased array radars that each cover 120 degrees of the sky for a fill 369 degrees.
North Korean leader Kim Jung Un climbs aboard new NK AWAC’s. Diagram showing the degrees of coverage from the plane.
Images of the interior of the plane were also released showing at least seven individual workstations and several flatscreens for displaying mission data. AEW&C aircraft typically have large crews for operating the radar as well covering traffic control duties for friendly aircraft and mission control for different units. The exsist acne of this plane has been known for over a year as satilite pictures were released showing the plane under construction. The Warzone has an older write up on the possible capabilities of North Korean AEW&C’s that I would like to include.
Kim Jung Un tours the interior of the NK Airborne Early Warning & Command airplane.
“While it’s questionable to what degree more complex battle management and command and control functions could be mastered by North Korea, and hosted aboard an AEW&C aircraft, the ability to extend airborne radar coverage over considerable distances would be a great advantage, either providing prior warning of a potential attack from South Korea and/or tracking incoming aircraft and missiles during at least the opening moments of a conflict. The data it collects could also be shared with surface-to-air missile operators to help provide extra warning to enhance their operations. More importantly, it would provide a new tool for daily surveillance of North Korean and South Korean airspace and an avenue to learn to better perfect AEW&C capabilities.”
They went in to include.
“Ultimately, an airborne radar, as found in an AEW&C aircraft, provides a ‘look down’ capability that can spot aircraft, cruise missiles, or drones among the ground clutter and is far less restricted by high terrain compared to ground-based radars. No such radar was previously available to North Korea.”
“On the other hand, there are no signs that North Korea is converting more than a single Il-76 for the AEW&C mission, which means this kind of coverage would be necessarily limited.”
A shot of the plane under construction back in 2024. Shot from earlier this year.
It’s likely but unclear how much support North Korea received from China or Russia in the construction of the craft. One thought is that Russia provided help with the project in exchange for North Koreas recent aid in Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. North Korea earlier sent around 10,000 soldiers to help in Russia Kursk region and just recently it was announced that 2,000 more were being dispatched to the region.
Thursday March 20th, Ukraine struck one of Russia’s most important airbases, housing Russia strategic bombers, with drones. The attack triggered a huge explosion that was caught on geolocated video.
Engels 2 Airbase
Engles-2 is located 450 miles from the Ukrainian frontline. While Russia or Ukraine both didn’t report directly what was used to carry out the attack, Russian forces in the area did report shooting down 54 drones during the time the base came under attack.
Russia’s Engels-2 airbase is one of its most important airbases as it is the one airbase operating Russia’s Tupolev TU-160’s (NATO reporting name Blackjack). The TU-160 is a supersonic, variable swept-wing, nuclear capable long-range, strategic bomber that has been during the Russia/Ukraine war to launch long range cruise missile into Ukraine.
The TU-160. While often compared to the Rockwell B-1 ”Lancer” the TU-160 is significantly larger and faster while the B-1 has a larger payload. The TU-160 was designed as a long range cruise missile platform, the Bone on the other hand excels at penetrating highly contested airspace’s with its speed and ability to use terrain masking by flying very low.
While the bombers would be a nice target it appears the main focus of the attack was on something even more critical to the war. Looking at the satellite images, released in the days since the attack, show that all of the TU-160’s or TU-95’s were undamaged after the attack. The drones mostly targeted an area of the airbase being used to store munitions. The base, along with regular munitions, is used for the maintaining and storage of the Russian KH-101 Cruise missile although it’s not verified if any of them were damaged or destroyed.
Overview of the whole airfield. Affected area is off by itself in the top right under the Maxar logo. The before shot of an ammunition storage area of the airbase. These ammo storage areas, generally are fairly easy to spot as it will usually be an underground building or a regular building with raised dirt berms surrounding it. The dirt is there tj absorb shock and hopefully protect neighboring buildings in case of an explosion. The after shot. A number of buildings here are completely destroyed, either from direct targeting or a result of the blast and resulting fire that blazed for two days.
The fire in the aftermath of the attack led to a state of emergency being declared in the region as civilians were evacuated. Some having had their houses damaged in the explosion.
Video shows the soon after from the explosion, you can see that some of the houses were damaged from the shockwave of the large blast.
The explosion damaged many homes in the immediate area. Windows busted or blown out, as well as roofs being damaged or having sections completely blown off.
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