Desperate rescuers battled against the clock Thursday under pouring rain to pull survivors from the rubble after a powerful quake struck a mountainous border region of Afghanistan, killing at least 1,000 people.
The 5.9-magnitude quake struck hardest in the rugged east, where people already lead hardscrabble lives in the grip of a humanitarian crisis made worse since the Taliban takeover in August.
The death toll climbed steadily Wednesday as news of casualties filtered in from hard-to-reach areas in the mountains, and the country's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, warned it would likely rise further. "Our country is poor and lacks resources," he told AFP. "This is a humanitarian crisis. It is like a tsunami."
The disaster poses a huge challenge for the Taliban, who have largely isolated the country with their hardline Islamist policies -- particularly the subjugation of women and girls. "The government is working within its capabilities," tweeted Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official.
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