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At Least 1,000 Killed In Afghanistan's Worst Quake In Two Decades

["Rfe Rl'S Radio Azadi"]

Date: 2022-06

A major earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of June 22 has killed at least 1,000 people and injured 1,500, a toll that was likely to rise as rescuers scrambled to reach remote mountain villages.

The 6.1-magnitude quake was the deadliest in the country since 2002, when a similarly powerful quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan. Worst-affected in the more recent earthquake were the Paktika and Khost provinces.

Mohammad Amin Huzaifa, the provincial head of the Taliban-led Information and Culture Department in Paktika, and the Taliban-run state news agency Bakhtar reported similar figures -- around 1,000 killed and 1,500 injured.

"People are digging grave after grave," Huzaifa said, adding that the numbers may rise as rescue efforts continue to reach outlying areas. Operations have been complicated by rain and landslides, officials said.

Interior Ministry official Salahuddin Ayubi said the death toll was likely to rise "as some of the villages are in remote areas in the mountains and it will take some time to collect details."



U.S. President Joe Biden has directed USAID and other federal government entities to assess how it can respond to help those most affected by the earthquake.



"We are committed to continuing our support for the needs of the Afghan people as we stand with them during and in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy," national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said.



The United Nations said it was deploying medical health teams and providing medical supplies, but it said it did not have search-and-rescue capabilities in Afghanistan.

Earthquakes are exceptionally destructive in areas like eastern Afghanistan, where many houses are poorly built with materials such as mud.



Helicopters were deployed in the rescue effort to reach the injured and fly in medical supplies and food, said Salahuddin Ayubi, an official in the Taliban Interior Ministry.

Footage from Paktika showed casualties being carried onto helicopters to be airlifted from the area while others were being treated on the ground.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck about 46 kilometers from the southeastern city of Khost, near the border with Pakistan, at a depth of 10 kilometers.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said the tremors were felt over 500 kilometers away by 119 million people across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

The shallow depth of the quake adds to its destructive force, experts said.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the ruling Taliban, offered his condolences in a statement.

In Kabul, Taliban Prime Minister Muhammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency meeting at the presidential palace to coordinate the relief effort for victims in Paktika and Khost.

The quake hit at a time when an increasingly isolated Afghanistan is battling a severe humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban's takeover of the country in August last year.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

[END]

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