New Tremors Worsen Plight of Afghan Quake Survivors

New tremors split mountain roads and crumbled villages in remote northeastern Afghanistan on Saturday, worsening the lot of survivors of a devastating quake and the aid workers trying to reach them. An additional 150 deaths were reported in Saturday’s shaking.

Aid agencies say between 2,150 and 4,450 people died in Wednesday’s magnitude 6.1 quake, which set off landslides that buried many in their rugged hillside villages.

Saturday’s jolts failed to register at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., indicating the latest tremors were below 4.5 in magnitude--but still strong enough to block relief routes and claim new victims.

“And now we may only be able to reach the survivors by helicopter,” said Sayed Ali Javed, leader of a team coordinating relief efforts in the isolated Rustaq district of Takhar province, nestled between the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges.

Reports of Wednesday’s quake reached the Afghan capital of Kabul, 150 miles to the south, only on Friday evening. Details were still sketchy Saturday.

Officials of the military alliance that controls the poor farming area said as many as 15,000 families were left homeless. Whole hillsides collapsed onto each other, crushing thousands of mud-and-brick homes perched on the slopes.

Sher Mohammed, a spokesman for the alliance, said soldiers digging through the rubble found 450 bodies Saturday, raising his death toll estimate to nearly 4,500.

Aid workers are skeptical about the high figures given by the alliance, noting that the area was sparsely populated and that Afghan officials have exaggerated natural disasters in the past.

Juan Martinez, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, said local aid workers had counted 2,150 bodies pulled from the rubble. That figure is expected to climb as the digging continues, he said.