and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces. The earthquake was the latest calamity to convulse Afghanistan, which has been reeling from a dire economic crisis since the Taliban took control of the country as the U.S. Terrified as the earth still rumbles from aftershocks like one on Friday that claimed five more lives, he said his children in Gayan refuse to go indoors. Gul received a tent and blankets from a local charity in the Gayan district, but he and his surviving relatives have had to fend for themselves. helicopters and trucks laden with bread, flour, rice and blankets have trickled into the stricken areas. Deputy Special Representative Ramiz Alakbarov toured the hard-hit Paktika province on Saturday to assess the damage and distribute food, medicine and tents. The United Nations and an array of international aid groups and countries have mobilized to send help.Д¬hina pledged Saturday nearly $7.5 million in emergency humanitarian aid, joining nations including Iran, Pakistan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in dispatching a planeload of tents, towels, beds and other badly needed supplies to the quake-hit area.

Many have yet to be visited by aid groups and authorities, which are struggling to reach the afflicted area on rutted roads - some made impassable by landslides and damage.ДЄware of its constraints, the cash-strapped Taliban have called for foreign assistance and on Saturday appealed to Washington to unfreeze billions of dollars in AfghanistanвЂ™s currency reserves. Those who were barely scraping by have lost everything. ItвЂ™s a fear shared among thousands in the impoverished villages where the fury of the quake has fallen most heavily - in Paktika and Khost provinces, along the jagged mountains that straddle the countryвЂ™s border with Pakistan. вЂњI donвЂ™t know what will happen to us or how we should restart our lives,вЂќ Gul told The Associated Press on Sunday, his hands bruised and his shoulder injured. Either toll would make the quake AfghanistanвЂ™s deadliest in two decades. The United Nations has put the death toll at 770 people but warned it could rise further. His niece and nephew were also killed in the quake, crushed by the walls of their house. Now, days after a 6 magnitude quake that devastated a remote southeast region of Afghanistan and killed at least 1,150 people by authoritiesвЂ™ estimates, Gul sees destruction everywhere and help in short supply. He doesnвЂ™t know how many hours of digging passed before he caught a glimpse of their bodies under the ruins. He clawed through the rubble in the predawn darkness, choking on dust as he searched for his father and two sisters. GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) - When the ground heaved from last weekвЂ™s earthquake in Afghanistan, Nahim GulвЂ™s stone-and-mud house collapsed on top of him.

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