The quake hit 33km from Herat city, the capital of the western province of the same name.
Today’s earthquake is the latest to hit a region where entire villages have been flattened and over 1,000 killed by a series of tremors this month.
The quake hit at 0336 GMT, 33km from Herat city, the capital of the western province of the same name, the USGS said. Days later, with thousands of terrified residents left without shelter and volunteers digging for survivors, another tremor of the same intensity killed one person and injured 130 others.The United Nations said more than 12,000 people were affected by the tremors.
Most homes in rural Afghanistan are made of mud and built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of steel or concrete reinforcement.