Death toll from Afghan earthquake jumps to more than 2,200 as aid agencies plead for funds

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds more bodies have been recovered from houses in mountain villages destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan early this week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday.

The shallow, magnitude-6.0 quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains.