UNITED NATIONS (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Aid i sbeing rushed to northern Afghanistan where a series of earthquakes flattened a district capital and several villages where 18,000 were killed and 4,000 others were injured. Some 1,500 homes were destroyed and 20,000 people left without shelter. (Read graph caption within). Nahrin, home to about 83,000 people, was about 85 percent destroyed, according to preliminery estimates. The affected region is about 100 miles east of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
U.N. aid agencies rushed emergency supplies to northern Afghanistan's Nahrin district on Tuesday. 
Winter clothing, blankets, tents, food and body bags were among the items dispatched to the region after the quakes, which struck late on Monday night and early on Tuesday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it was sending in 70 tons of supplies including food, medicine, children's clothing, soap and cooking gear.
Complicating the task, two of the three roads serving the area have been blocked by quake damage, leaving the road from Kilaghai as the sole access route, the office said in an initial "situation report" issued at U.N. headquarters.
Russia offered an Antonov airplane to fly supplies into nearby Kunduz airport and the U.N. World Food Program agreed to provide three helicopters to fly in relief items and medical personnel beginning on Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said.

GRAPH CAPTION:
U.N. aid agencies rushed emergency supplies to northern Afghanistan's Nahrin district on March 26, 2002 after a series of earthquakes flattened a district capital and several villages. Winter clothing, blankets, tents, food and body bags were among the items dispatched to the region after the quakes, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. This Reuters graphic shows the tectonic plates in the region around Afghanistan with pointers explaining why the area is prone to earthquakes. (Reuters Graphic)