Another Quake Hits Western Afghanistan; Official Says Losses ‘Huge’ 

Afghan men search for victims after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, of western Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP)
Afghan men search for victims after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, of western Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP)
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Another Quake Hits Western Afghanistan; Official Says Losses ‘Huge’ 

Afghan men search for victims after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, of western Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP)
Afghan men search for victims after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, of western Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP)

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan's western province of Herat on Wednesday, forcing authorities to redeploy relief and rescue teams already in the field following a series of deadly quakes on Saturday.

There were no early details on casualties caused by the latest quake, disaster management spokesman Janan Sayeeq told Reuters. Saturday's tremors killed at least 2,400 people, the Taliban-run government said, making the quakes one of the deadliest in the world so far this year.

The office of Herat's governor said in a statement that some districts adjoining areas that had been completely flattened by earlier quakes had suffered "huge losses".

More than 2,000 were injured when the multiple earthquakes levelled thousands of homes northwest of the city of Herat days earlier.

"Mobile medical teams and officials have been working together and have transferred several injured people to hospital," the governor's office said.

The German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said the latest quake was magnitude 6.3, and occurred at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles).

Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.

Relief and rescue efforts after Saturday's earthquakes have been hampered by infrastructure left crumbling by decades of war and a lack of foreign aid which once formed the backbone of the economy but which has dried up since the Taliban took over.

Afghanistan's healthcare system, largely reliant on foreign aid, has also faced crippling cuts.



Pentagon is Sending About 3,000 More Active-duty Troops to US-Mexico Border

FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
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Pentagon is Sending About 3,000 More Active-duty Troops to US-Mexico Border

FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A US military member stands near a section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico, after the visit of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo

The Pentagon is sending about 3,000 more active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border as President Donald Trump seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration and fulfill a central promise of his campaign, US officials said Saturday.
His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has ordered elements of a Stryker brigade combat team and a general support aviation battalion for the mission, the Pentagon announced. The forces will arrive along the nearly 2,000-mile border in the coming weeks, The Associated Press reported.
The Defense Department's statement did not specify the size of the deployment, but it was put at about 3,000 by the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Strykers are medium-armored wheeled personnel carriers.
Already, about 9,200 US troops in total are at the southern border, including 4,200 deployed under federal orders and about 5,000 National Guard troops under the control of governors.
The new troops will “reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the Pentagon said.
Trump is determined to expand the military’s role in his effort to shut down the border and send detained migrants back to their home countries.
Military personnel have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s to help address migration, drug trafficking and transnational crime.