Avalanches kill 29 in Afghanistan

Avalanches have killed at least 29 people in Afghanistan’s mountainous north east as rescuers struggled to reach the worst-hit areas cut off by heavy snow.

The Afghan National Disaster Management Agency said today that at least 40 more people had been injured in a series of avalanches since Monday in Badakhshan province.

Roads outside the provincial capital of Faizabad are blocked by at least 6ft of snow, the agency said.

Afghanistan’s harsh winters and mountainous terrain in the north make avalanches a danger each year. In February 2010, an avalanche killed at least 171 people near the Salang Pass, a major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital of Kabul to the north of the country.

Meanwhile, Nato said that one of its service members died after an explosion in southern Afghanistan yesterday. A coalition statement did not provide the nationality of the service member, nor any details of the attack.

Yesterday dozens were killed and wounded when a suicide attacker blew himself up in a bazaar.

Daud Ahmadi, a provincial spokesman, said a bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Afghans, including two policeman, and wounded at least 23 other people in Kajaki district of Helmand province.

A statement released by Nato said the Kajaki explosion killed and wounded dozens of Afghan civilians, Afghan national security forces and coalition troops. The statement did not give details about how many foreign troops had been killed or wounded.