Afghanistan airdrops commandos to rescue earthquake survivors

Kabul/Mazar Dara: Afghanistan airdropped commandos on Wednesday to pull survivors from the rubble of homes in mountainous eastern areas ravaged by earthquakes this week that have killed 1,400, as it ramped up efforts to deliver food, shelter and medical supplies.

The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of Afghanistan's worst in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction when it struck the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar around midnight on Sunday at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles).

A second quake of magnitude 5.5 on Tuesday caused panic and interrupted rescue efforts as it sent rocks sliding down mountains and cut off roads to villages in remote areas.

Dozens of commando forces were being airdropped at sites where helicopters cannnot land, to help carry the injured to safer ground, said Ehsanullah Ehsan, the head of disaster management in Kunar.

"A camp has been set up where service and relief committees are coordinating supplies and emergency aid," he said. Two centres were also overseeing transfer of the injured, burial of the dead and the rescue of survivors, he added.

Earlier, rescuers had used helicopters to ferry the wounded to hospital as they battled with mountainous terrain and harsh weather to reach quake-hit villages along the border with Pakistan, where the tremors flattened mudbrick homes.

The toll stands at 1,411 deaths, 3,124 injuries and more than 5,400 destroyed homes, the Taliban administration said, as the United Nations has warned it could rise, with victims trapped under rubble.

A Reuters journalist, who arrived in the area before Tuesday's tremors, saw every home had been damaged or destroyed, while people dug through rubble in the desperate search for those still trapped.

The second earthquake levelled homes only partially damaged by the first, residents said.

Resources for rescue and relief work are tight resources in the impoverished nation of 42 million people, which has received limited global help after the tragedy.

The impact was worsened by flimsy or poorly-built homes made of dry masonry, stone and timber giving little protection from earthquakes, in ground left unstable by days of heavy rain, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The agency, which is pulling together the global disaster effort, called for emergency shelter, food assistance and sanitation facilities, along with drinking water, critical medical supplies and other items.

The humanitarian response needed to urgently scale up, said an official of international group Médecins Sans Frontières that distributed trauma kits at two hospitals in the affected areas.

"We saw many patients treated in the corridors and health workers in need of supplies," said Dr Fazal Hadi, its deputy medical coordinator in Afghanistan, adding that the hospitals had been working at full capacity even before the quake.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.