Earthquake rocks Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An earthquake devastated mountain villages in northern Afghanistan, where officials Tuesday estimated at least 1,800 people died and thousands more were injured in a region already hard-hit by hunger, drought and war. \nAt the scene, the military commander from the Baglan region said the Monday night quake collapsed 20,000 mud-brick houses. Gen. Haider Kahn estimated between 600 and 1,000 people remained trapped and said the death toll could hit 2,000. \nYusuf Nuristani, a government spokesman, told reporters in Kabul that the death toll had reached 1,800 by Tuesday afternoon with 2,000 injured. Kabul television later reported 5,000 hurt. \nAid agencies said thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- were homeless, as aftershocks continued to jolt the majestic Hindu Kush mountains towering Kabul and separate the capital from the extreme north of the country. \nThere were fears of landslides as the earth continued to heave after the Monday night quake, centered about 105 miles north of Kabul. \nNo Americans or foreigners were known to be among the missing or dead. Brig. Gen. John Rosa Jr. told a Pentagon briefing that no coalition forces were hurt by the quake. \nThe old part of Nahrin town was leveled and some 40 other villages on Nahrin plain were affected, prompting aid groups to gear up to provide shelter for 6,000 to 7,000 families in that area alone, U.N. spokesman Manoel de Alemida e Silva said. \n"These people were hit by 20 years of war, three to four years of drought and now comes the earthquake," said Mirielle Borne, an aid worker with the independent agency ACTED who arrived in the stricken town as night fell Tuesday. \n"It just keeps piling up. They just take it as it comes. It's a matter of holding on to the next day." \nImmediate concerns included getting water, food and shelter to the area, where 80 percent of the families had been targeted before the quake to receive wheat from the World Food Program. \nBorne said she expected villagers from even more remote regions to arrive by donkey or on foot in coming days, seeking help and bringing word of additional damage and casualties. \nThe only good news, she said, was the weather. "It is cold, but there is no rain or snow, and people are either sleeping at relatives homes or are sheltering in the rubble." \nAn aftershock hit the region Tuesday evening, reinforcing fears of going back inside poorly constructed houses. Many people were sleeping outdoors, the U.N. spokesman said, with temperatures expected to remain above freezing, in the 40s.