TALEBAN REPORT 4,500 QUAKE DEATHS, BOMBING

By Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taleban militia said on Saturday

that 4,500 people were killed by a devastating mid-week earthquake in a remote

northern province and accused its foes of bombing the area after the disaster.

Taleban spiritual leader Mohammad Omar said in a message to the people of

quake-hit Takhar province that he had ordered his militia to stop fighting for

three days from Saturday to allow relief agencies to reach the region.

Omar, in a statement on Taleban radio, said he was sending 100 tonnes each of

wheat and rice and two billion afghanis (about $60,000) for the victims of the

quake, which is in the opposition-held Rustaq district of the province.

The radio, monitored in Pakistan, said that opposition aircraft bombed the

district of Bangi, which lies midway between the Taleban-held town of Kunduz

and Taloqan, the key town in Takhar province, which is held by the opposition

coalition.

It said the bombing took place ``after the earthquake'' but gave no further

details. Western relief sources in Islamabad said they were aware of the

reports but had no information.

Opposition sources told a Pakistan-based Afghan news service at least 4,400

bodies had been recovered and rescuers were struggling in bitter cold to find

more after Wednesday's quake.

The Taleban movement, which rules two thirds of Afghanistan, offered to open

airports and roads under its control to aid agencies to take relief to victims

and provide helicopters to evacuate the injured, the Afghan Islamic Press

(AIP) reported.

A coalition of factions based in northern Afghanistan has been fighting to

oust the Taleban Islamic militia since it seized Kabul, the capital, in

September 1996.

There was confusion over the exact scale of the disaster, with international

aid officials saying they believed some reported death tolls had been

exaggerated.

Relief agencies in Geneva said on Friday the Afghan Red Crescent society had

reported a ``preliminary and provisional'' toll of at least 2,150 deaths with

thousands injured.

``It is a difficult place to get to. Until we actually get our people on the

ground with a proper assessment team, that is as far as we can go,'' said a

spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

Societies (IFRC).

Swedish seismologists said the quake measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, but a

Pakistani seismic centre put it at 5.6.

According to AIP, 1,200 bodies had been found in Rustaq town and more in

several villages -- some 1,400 in Guzardarra, 800 in Baghshar, 700 in Surghar

and 300 in Khairat.

Most of another village, Dashte Tarazo, was destroyed, but no casualty figure

was yet available from there, AIP said, quoting witnesses and opposition

sources in the Takhar province capital Taloqan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the IFRC said a relief

mission was to leave Kabul on Saturday to assess damage and take emergency

medical supplies.

``Most of the inhabitants of this area live in mud and brick houses that are

known to not have the structural ability to absorb the impact of an earthquake

of this magnitude,'' a statement from the agencies said.

``Survivors will also have to face cold winter weather until relief supplies

arrive.''

Christian Guntern, speaking from the ICRC's office in Kabul, told Swiss

television on Friday that the team would try to set up makeshift hospitals and

shelters in the stricken, snowy zone.

``We will probably also bring tents because a huge number of houses have been

destroyed,'' he said, adding that the casualty figures were rough ones based

on accounts from displaced people.

Laurent Corbaz, head of the South Asia desk at ICRC headquarters in Geneva,

said there was doubt over some of the reports emerging from northern

Afghanistan.

``It is a region which is difficult to reach and where toll figures are very

problematic. We are very careful on this.''

He suggested an earlier report of 2,500 killed to be ``very exaggerated''

because the area was very sparsely populated.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Ravan Farhadi, who

represents the administration of ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani, said on

Friday more the earthquake was centred on Rustaq town and had destroyed more

than 20 villages, including six large ones, he said.

More than 2,000 homes were ruined and the region was snowbound and cold, he

added. An airport west of Rustaq called Khuja-Ghar was operating and could

handle relief supplies.

An IFRC spokesman noted that a major quake in Kobe, Japan in January 1995 had

claimed 6,430 lives.

``That was a built-up area, whereas this is a sparsely-populated one,'' the

spokesman said.