Rival Afghan groups join massive quake relief operations

ISLAMABAD, Feb 8 (AFP) - Warring Afghan factions have set aside their hostilities and initiated combined relief and rescue efforts in the earthquake devastated northern districts, Afghan sources and press here said Sunday. The Taliban militia, which controls Kabul and the southern two thirds of the country, ordered a unilateral truce in Takhar province where an earthquake Wednesday claimed more than 4,000 lives in remote mountainous terrain. The leaders of the Taliban and their rival northern alliance expressed solidarity with the bereaved families as the nation was plunged into mourning following the quake which also left an estimated 15,000 people homeless in freezing temperatures. An Islamabad daily, The Muslim, said the warring factions have set aside their differences as many people in the devastated region were cut off from the rest of the country and had not received "even the first aid." Officials at the Pakistan meteorological department said the quake, centered on the Afghan-Tajikistan border, measured 5.6 on Richter scale. The first casualty reports, which did not reach here until Friday, put the death toll at more than 4,000 with 2,000 injured, and said thousands of mountainside mud houses were destroyed. Opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood rushed his troops to provided assistance to people in the region which has no proper road links. Opposition sources said 1,400 people were killed in the worst affected area of Guzar Darra, with 1,200 dead in Rostaq district, 800 in Baghshar, 700 in Targhar and 300 in Khajakhirat area. International aid agencies were gearing up for a massive relief operation and there was no independent confirmation of the death toll.