Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills at Least 13, Nine of Them in Pakistan

People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
TT

Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills at Least 13, Nine of Them in Pakistan

People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)
People come out of a restaurant after a tremor was felt in Lahore, Pakistan March 21, 2023. (Reuters)

At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said.

At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight.

At least four people were killed and 50 injured in Afghanistan, a health ministry official there said.

Houses and buildings in both countries were also damaged, authorities said.

The quake was felt over an area more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) wide by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said.

The epicenter was in the Hindu Kush mountains, in the sparsely populated northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, 40km southeast of Jurm village, at the considerable depth of 187km, the US Geological Survey said.

In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province senior provincial official Abdul Basit said that addition to the dead and injured, at least 19 houses were damaged.

Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's disaster mitigation ministry, said late on Tuesday that two people had been killed in the eastern province of Laghman.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year.

In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northern Pakistan.



Zelenskiy Says Trump Assured Him of Support for Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looks on as he meets with democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured), in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looks on as he meets with democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured), in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
TT

Zelenskiy Says Trump Assured Him of Support for Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looks on as he meets with democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured), in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looks on as he meets with democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured), in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, US, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an interview with Fox News aired on Saturday, said he received "very direct information" from Donald Trump that the former US president would support Ukraine in the war against Russia if he is reelected in the November presidential election.

Zelenskiy, who was in the United States for the UN General Assembly, presented his war "victory plan" to Trump during a closed-door meeting on Friday, after the Republican presidential candidate said he would work with both Ukraine and Russia to end their conflict.

Speaking to Fox News after that meeting, Zelenskiy said: "I don't know what will be after elections and who will be the president ... But I've got from Donald Trump very direct information that he will be on our side, that he will support Ukraine."

He has used his US visit to promote his "victory plan," which a US official described as a repackaged request for more weapons and a lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles. The plan presupposes the ultimate defeat of Russia in the war, the official said. Some officials see the aim as unrealistic.

Zelenskiy, who also met with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, said he was seeking united US support in its continuing war with Russia and was not backing either side in US elections.

"I don't want to be involved to the election period ... I don't want to lose one or another part of Americans," Zelenskiy told Fox News.

On Friday, Trump said he was pleased to meet with Zelenskiy, a marked change in tone from some of his previous comments on the campaign trail.

Trump and Harris' differences on Ukraine echo splits in their respective Democratic and Republican parties, and their view of the US role in the world.

Trump and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the value of US funding and additional weapons for Ukraine's two-year battle against Russia, calling it futile, while Democrats led by Biden have pushed to punish Russia and bolster Ukraine, framing Ukraine's victory as a vital national security interest.