Up to 1,500 Feared Dead in Afghan Quake

March 26 -- As many as 1,500 people were feared dead and thousands injured after a series of major earthquakes struck Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Monday night and early this morning, flattening villages in the remote mountainous region.

Casualty estimates vary widely and Afghan officials estimate that 4,000 people were injured, at least 1,500 homes were destroyed and 20,000 people were rendered homeless.

Afghan officials said the remote district of Nahrin in Baghlan, near the epicenter of the quake in the rugged Hindu Kush mountains, had been particularly hard hit and people were in a panic as temblors continued to rock the region into the early morning hours.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said the 5.9magnitude quake on Monday night was centered about 105 miles north of the Afghan capital of Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains.

An Afghan Defense Ministry official today said 600 bodies had been recovered from villages still suffering from aftershocks.

"I can say that 90 percent of Nahrin has been destroyed," said Mira Jan, an official from the Afghan Defense Ministry today. "We asked [peacekeepers] and all other humanitarian non-governmental organizations to help the people there because they lost everything. They need tents, medicines, everything."

Speaking to reporters in Kabul today, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said he understood the death toll may reach 1,800, attributing the information to Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai.

Khalilzad extended condolences on behalf of the United States and offered U.S. assistance to Afghanistan's interim government in dealing with the tragedy.

The scale of the tragedy prompted Karzai to cancel a scheduled trip to Turkey, an Afghan official said today. He is expected to visit the region later today along with the interim Afghan health and defense ministers.

Scenes of Utter Devastation

Reports coming in from the remote region described scenes of utter panic and devastation.