<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan rises to 2,000, said a Taliban spokesman Sunday, in one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A powerful magnitude-6.3 earthquake followed by strong aftershocks killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, the country’s national disaster authority said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesman of the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the death toll from the earthquake in Herat is higher originally reported. About six villages have been destroyed, and hundreds of civilians have been buried under the debris, he said while calling for urgent help.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United Nations gave a preliminary figure of 320 dead, but later said the figure was still being verified. Local authorities gave an estimate of 100 people killed and 500 injured, according to the same update from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>