Efforts by aid agencies to rush relief supplies to tens of thousands of
Afghans left homeless by a devastating quake were hindered today when a strong aftershock left mountain roads blocked by rocks and boulders.
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An Afghan girl screams and grabs hold of her father as a sharp aftershock hits the already devastated village of Nahrin Photo: Reuters
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Officials said the death toll from Monday's earthquake was in the hundreds, not thousands as originally feared. The United Nations estimates the final death toll to be around 800-1,200.
The 6.1-magnitude quake struck nearly 80 villages on in a mountainous region nine miles in radius, affecting 100,000 people either cut off from food supplies or left homeless.
By Afghan standards, aid reached the quake-stricken Hindu Kush region with remarkable speed - assisted by US forces in Afghanistan to battle Taliban and al Qaida forces and international peacekeepers whose first job is maintaining security in the capital, Kabul.
"We're here, obviously, for a combat mission, but when this unfortunate accident happened, we were standing by with our coalition partners," said Maj. Leanne Smullen, who accompanied two US Chinooks from Bagram air base laden with UN medical supplies and tents. The crew also evacuated one injured person.
Despite rough, poorly maintained roads and frequent truck breakdowns, 2,000 tents, 10,000 blankets and 1,000 tons of food reached Nahrin, 105 miles north of Kabul, a little more than a day after the earthquake, UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said.
Clothing, mattresses, cooking sets, medical supplies and surgical units also were on the way.
However the needs were still greater than the supplies at hand.
UN officials said they need 20,000 tents, 160,000 blankets and 10,000 mattresses.
And relief efforts to some regions were being hampered by minefields leftover from 20 years of conflict, their threat multiplied by concerns that the mines had been shifted by the quake.
And a new landslide prevented aid workers from reaching Burka north of Nahrin, where aerial reconnaissance showed half of the homes in eight villages had been destroyed, leaving 800 families homeless.
Road crews had just cleared the dirt mountain track to the remote region when the 5.4-magnitude jolt loosened more boulders today, said UN regional coordinator Fahrana Faruqi.
The UN said it remained concerned about conditions in the Panjshir Valley, tucked deep inside the Hindu Kush mountains north of Kabul, where six villages with 3,000 people were completely destroyed.
There were also fears for Lakankhel, where aid workers estimate up to 70% of homes in seven villages were destroyed, affecting 935 families.
De-mining teams were already at work in Panjshir, the UN said.
By today, 300 people had been treated for injuries at the scene, and 70 of them were treated for more serious injuries, many of them taken out to Pul-e-Kumri.
AP