Over 1,200 dead in Afghan quakes Posted by Scott Manning on March 26, 2002 | Comments (0)

A series of major earthquakes shook Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan on Monday night and Tuesday, killing at least 1,200 people, relief officials said. The Afghan Defense Ministry says 600 bodies had been recovered by early afternoon from villages still shaking from frequent aftershocks, with officials predicting the toll will climb still higher.

A Kabul Foreign Ministry official said the district capital of Nahrin, near the epicenter in the rugged Hindu Kush mountains, had been destroyed, and a Defense Ministry spokesman said 1,500 homes had crumbled.Acted, a non-governmental organization aid organization with staffers in the quake area, said field reports indicated the death toll was at least 300, with bodies still being recovered and the ground still shaking from frequent aftershocks from the main quake, a 5.9-magnitude temblor that hit late Monday.Full Story...