Turkmenistan Pledges Humanitarian Relief To Quake Victims In Afghanistan

Turkmenistan announced on Thursday that it will send humanitarian assistance to earthquake victims in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, while addressing Mohammad Fazel Saber, charge d'affaires of the Afghanistan Embassy in Ashgabat, expressed his country's willingness to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people in the near future.

The foreign minister also expressed his condolences for the loss of over 1,000 people in Afghanistan's southeastern provinces, according to a statement issued by Turkmenistan's Embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Turkmenistan heard the news of the tragic earthquake in the Afghan regions of Khost and Paktika with deep grief, he stated.

The death toll in the Afghanistan earthquake has risen to 1,150, a Taliban official said on Thursday.

At least 1,150 were killed and 1,600 others wounded in the magnitude 6.1 quake which shook the country's east on Tuesday, Abdul Wahid Rayan, director general of state-run Bakhtar News Agency, told Anadolu Agency.

Paktika and Khost are the most affected Afghan provinces where several villages were completely destroyed by the deadly earthquake.​​​​​​​ -