Setbacks at Afghan Tunnel Added to Blizzard Problems

It was an accident waiting to happen.

The strategic Salang Tunnel in northern Afghanistan had been reopened only a few weeks, a symbol of the reunion of the war-divided country, before the fatal avalanche struck Wednesday.

Traffic through the tunnel had already started backing up a few days before, as the snow began to fall high in the Hindu Kush mountains. With no money coming in to fuel the only snowplow for the area, the plow’s operator had been begging, car to car, for gas to continue clearing the road, civil servant Mohammed Mukhtar said in Kabul, the capital. Mukhtar, 35, oversees the many private transport vehicles that travel from Kabul to the northern part of the country via the tunnel.

Making matters worse, most of the avalanche protection structures that hang over the road leading to and from the tunnel had been destroyed by years of fighting.

So when the blizzard sent snow cascading down the mountain just south of the tunnel, trapping scores of cars, the Afghan government turned to international aid groups for help.

They rushed to the scene, rescuing 300 people trapped in 57 vehicles. Five people died, including two children. Three of the victims apparently were asphyxiated inside the tunnel as drivers kept their car engines running to stay warm, U.N. spokesman Yusuf Hassan said Thursday.

Seven others were seriously injured and evacuated to Kabul. All the victims appeared to be Afghans.

It took rescuers about 12 hours to reach the first cars, fighting blinding snow and biting temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero. The tunnel is the highest in the world.

Fortunately, the first group on the scene, HALO Trust, happened to be relatively close by, albeit for not-so-happy reasons: The area is loaded with land mines, which the group clears. The tunnel used to mark the dividing line between Northern Alliance-held territory to the north and Taliban-held land to the south.

For fear of land mines, the rescue vehicles couldn’t leave the pavement, making it all the more difficult to get through.

Also lending a hand were about 160 members of the multinational peacekeeping mission, the International Security Assistance Force, which is helping to police Kabul. The force sent ambulances, medics and soldiers to the Hindu Kush pass to assist, mission spokesman Jonathan Turner said.

As of Thursday night, Turner said, the men were still trying to help those trapped farther south on the road, which was slick with ice. Many drivers had simply abandoned their vehicles and were being picked up and taken to warm, dry places.

It isn’t clear when the road will reopen. Even before the avalanche, traffic was allowed to travel only one way each day so that in case of an accident or bad weather, the second lane would allow rescue vehicles to pass.

For at least two years, the tunnel was only passable on foot. Those wishing to travel to the north had to get out of their cars, walk 40 minutes through the tunnel to the other side and somehow procure another vehicle there.

After the fall of the Taliban late last year, Afghans, with the help of Russians, repaired the Soviet-built tunnel, reopening it with great fanfare Jan. 19.

On Thursday afternoon, dozens of passengers were stuck in northwest Kabul waiting near the capital’s transportation hub, frustrated in their attempts to head north. All around, stalls were selling items ranging from meat to auto parts. Boys carried around batteries, selling “jumps” for those that wouldn’t start.

The small hotels around the transportation hub for the north were full, said Mukhtar, the government worker. Women in particular were having a difficult time finding places to sleep, because most hotels don’t allow them to take a room, especially if they are unaccompanied.