22 dead as quakes rock Afghanistan

SHERZAD, Afghanistan, (AFP) - Two earthquakes killed up to 22 people in eastern Afghanistan, damaging villages and destroying scores of homes in a remote area near the border with Pakistan, local authorities said Friday.
The quakes hit Thursday night in Khogyani and Sherzad districts in Nangarhar province, where police searched for bodies and the injured under the rubble of flattened homes, while the grim process of burying the dead got underway. Twenty-two people have been killed and 30 injured. More than 200 homes have been destroyed, Khogyani district chief Haji Said Rahman told AFP. The 5.5- and 5.1-magnitude tremors, which struck two hours apart at shallow depths, had caused simple mud-brick homes to collapse with ease, said an AFP correspondent.
At one house, only a wall with a prayer mat hanging on it was left standing and several dead cows and sheep lay motionless in the rubble. Some people came out of their houses after the first tremor, said resident Yar Muhammad, 30, adding they went back inside to help other people get out.
But there came another strong tremor and the houses fell down on the people, Yar Muhammad added, as helicopters surveying the damage roared overhead. Funerals for three women and six children were held Friday afternoon.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai conveyed his condolences to local officials and tribal elders in the region, and ordered authorities to provide emergency aid as quickly as possible to the victims.
Twenty people were killed and around 50 wounded, the Presidency said in a statement. A US military provincial reconstruction team (PRT) based in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, also provided emergency assistance.
Ahmad Shekib Hamraz, an official with the disaster management directorate, said hundreds of animals had also been killed.
Nineteen people have been killed and 25 wounded. A hundred houses were destroyed. Some 350 to 400 animals were also killed, he said. The US Geological Survey said two moderate earthquakes rattled the Hindu Kush border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A 5.5-magnitude quake struck at 1:57 am Afghan time (2127 GMT Thursday), 85km southeast of Kabul, according to the US agency. The quake was at a shallow depth of eight kilometres. It was followed just over two hours later by a 5.1-magnitude aftershock at a depth of just three kilometres.
Meanwhile, the United States said Friday it was sending an aid convoy to help earthquake-hit Afghans near the Pakistan border. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting the Dominican Republic, told a Press conference she wanted to express my concerns for reports coming in from eastern Afghanistan.