Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on Thursday, June 23. A powerful earthquake struck the rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early on Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes in the country’s deadliest quake in two decades.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Updated 8:20 AM ET, Thu June 23, 2022
Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on Thursday, June 23. A powerful earthquake struck the rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early on Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes in the country’s deadliest quake in two decades.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country’s east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.
The humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.