Powerful Earthquake Shakes West Afghanistan a Week after Devastating Quakes Hit Same Region

A man affected by earthquake waits for relief in the earthquake-hit Zenda Jan district of Herat, Afghanistan, 13 October 2023. (EPA)
A man affected by earthquake waits for relief in the earthquake-hit Zenda Jan district of Herat, Afghanistan, 13 October 2023. (EPA)
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Powerful Earthquake Shakes West Afghanistan a Week after Devastating Quakes Hit Same Region

A man affected by earthquake waits for relief in the earthquake-hit Zenda Jan district of Herat, Afghanistan, 13 October 2023. (EPA)
A man affected by earthquake waits for relief in the earthquake-hit Zenda Jan district of Herat, Afghanistan, 13 October 2023. (EPA)

A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.

The US Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicenter was about 34 kilometers (21 miles) outside Herat, the provincial capital, and eight kilometers (five miles) below the surface.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders said two people were reported dead while Herat Regional Hospital received over 100 people injured in Sunday’s temblor.

Mohammad Zahir Noorzai, head of the emergency relief team in Herat province said one person died and nearly 150 others were injured. He added that casualty numbers might rise, as they are yet to reach all affected areas.

Sayed Kazim Rafiqi, 42, a Herta city resident, said he had never seen such devastation before with the majority of houses damaged and "people terrified." Rafiqi and others headed to the hospital to donate much-needed blood.

"We have to help in any way possible," he said.

The earthquakes on Oct. 7 flattened whole villages in Herat, in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.

More than 90% of the people killed a week ago were women and children, UN officials reported Thursday.

Taliban officials said the earlier quakes killed more than 2,000 people across the province. The epicenter was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to UN figures.

The initial quake, numerous aftershocks and a second 6.3-magnitude quake on Wednesday flattened villages, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes that could not withstand such force. Schools, health clinics and other village facilities also collapsed.

Besides rubble and funerals after that devastation, there was little left of the villages in the region’s dusty hills.

Survivors are struggling to come to terms with the loss of multiple family members and in many places, living residents are outnumbered by volunteers who came to search the debris and dig mass graves.



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.