Afghanistan avalanche claims 166

KABUL, Afghanistan – Helicopters ferried rescuers to and bodies away from the site of massive avalanches that blocked an important mountain pass north of Kabul as the death toll soared to 166, officials said. Hundreds more remained trapped in snowbound cars.

Afghan army troops dug through huge snowdrifts Wednesday trying to rescue people from buried vehicles in the Salang Pass, a key road that connects the Afghan capital with the north.

The 3.5 miles of road that were blanketed in the avalanches have been cleared of snow, but are littered with abandoned or snow-packed cars that still make much of it impassable, said the public works minister, Suharab Ali Safari.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said rescuers had recovered 166 bodies from the Salang Pass, 70 miles north of Kabul, over the past two days.

Some of the victims were found frozen to death inside their vehicles, while in other cases, their bodies were strewn along the road, he said.

Bashary said late Wednesday that the rescue operation was “95 percent over,” suggesting authorities did not expecte further significant increases in the death toll.

More than two dozen avalanches – which were triggered Monday – poured tons of snow and ice on the 12,700-foot-high pass. The 1.6 mile-long Salang Tunnel, a Soviet-built landmark dating from the 1960s through the Hindu Kush mountains, was cut off, with dozens of vehicles jammed inside.