Afghans airlift bodies as avalanche deaths hit 166

Afghan army troops dug through huge snowdrifts 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 (four kilometers) of road that were subsumed 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 have recovered 166 bodies from the Salang Pass, 70 miles (115 kilometers) 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.

More than two dozen avalanches -- which were triggered Monday -- poured tons of snow and ice on the 12,700-feet-high (3,800-meter) pass. The 1.6 mile (2.6 kilometer)-long Salang Tunnel, a Soviet-built landmark dating from the 1960s through the Hindu Kush mountains, was cut off, with dozens of cars, buses and trucks jammed inside; Kazinform cites China Daily. See www.chinadaily.com.cn for full version.