Devastating earthquake leaves more than 1,000 dead
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN >> For much of the past two decades, the southeastern part of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border was plagued by insurgent activity, as police and military posts were frequently overwhelmed by Taliban fighters, and received few benefits from the U.S. military presence.
Then early Wednesday, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the region, shattering what little peace and stability the people there had been able to hold on to after so many years of hardship and violence.
More than 1,000 people were killed and 1,600 others injured in the quake, officials said, striking another blow to a country that has grappled with a dire humanitarian and economic crisis since the Taliban takeover in August.
The quake — the deadliest in the country in two decades — hit about 28 miles southwest of the city of Khost, a provincial capital in the country's southeast, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and had a depth of about 6 miles. But the worst damage was in the neighboring Paktika province, which lies along the border with Pakistan.
“Nearly all government and private hospitals are full of victims,” said Awal Khan Zadran, a doctor in the Urgun district of Paktika. Some of the injured were taken to Kabul, the Afghan capital, by helicopters and others were transported to nearby provinces, he said.
It was the latest in a series of tragedies to strike the country since the Taliban seized power from the Western-backed government last summer. In the months since, Afghanistan has struggled with widespread hunger, a severe drought, terrorist attacks by the Islamic State group and an economic crisis.
The Taliban government Wednesday called on aid organizations to provide humanitarian support, even as the rulers have increasingly distanced themselves from the West after their refusal to loosen restrictions on women's education while imposing other draconian rules.