LaNUBlog™

The scene here is pretty desolate and distraught. The families who survived, a few hundred people, are at the top of the valley. The women and children sit on the open hillside where they spent the night. The men are lining up for aid and trying to secure their shelter.

Rescuers in Afghanistan have given up hope of finding any more survivors in a double landslide that is feared to have killed more than 2,500 people. They have stopped digging through the earth and mud that swamped a whole village in the remote north-east province of Badakhshan on Friday.

At least 18 Afghan police officers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban ambush in northern Badakhshan province, the interior ministry says. The police were in Wardooj district and on their way back to the provincial capital after an anti-insurgent operation when they came under attack. Although the mountainous north-east is relatively peaceful, Wardooj district has become increasingly volatile. The Taliban said that they had carried out the attack. In a statement they said that they had taken weapons and vehicles in the attack, and had handed over some of the bodies to tribal elders. The statement also said 47 insurgents had been killed in police operations in the same region this week. The interior ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of the police officers. Difficult terrain In March, 16 soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in Wardooj district, while in August 2010, British doctor Karen Woo was killed in an ambush in Badakhshan province, along with...