Associated Press Yusuf Nuristani, spokesman for Afghanistan's interim government, points yesterday to a map of the country's Northeast, where an earthquake Monday night killed some 1,800 people and wounded another 3,000.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An earthquake devastated mountain villages in northern Afghanistan, where officials on Tuesday estimated at least 1,800 people died and thousands more were injured in a region already hard-hit by hunger, drought and war.

At the scene, the military commander from the Baglan region said the Monday night quake collapsed 20,000 mud-brick houses. Gen. Haider Kahn estimated between 600 and 1,000 people remained trapped and said the death toll could hit 2,000.

Yusuf Nuristani, a government spokesman, told reporters in Kabul that the death toll had reached 1,800 by Tuesday afternoon with 2,000 injured. Kabul television later reported 5,000 hurt. In Geneva, U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Afghan authorities had initially reported the death toll could reach 4,800.

Aid agencies said thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - were homeless, as aftershocks continued to jolt the Hindu Kush mountains that tower above Kabul and separate the capital from the extreme north of the country.

There were fears of landslides as the earth continued to heave after the Monday night quake, which was centered about 105 miles north of Kabul.

No Americans or foreigners were known to be among the missing or dead. Brig. Gen. John Rosa Jr. told a Pentagon briefing that no coalition forces were hurt by the quake.

The town of Nahrin was reported destroyed, along with five other villages.

Afghan Defense Ministry official Mira Jan said 600 bodies had been recovered. Kabul television reported that 12,000 yards of white cloth had been sent to wrap the dead from the second fatal earthquake in the area this month.

Many people in the rural region were at home when the quake struck about 7:30 p.m. Monday, accounting for the high death toll, officials said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was relatively shallow - about 40 miles beneath the surface - meaning it had the power to cause more damage.

"People were caught in their homes," said Nigel Fisher, a senior U.N. official in Afghanistan.

Many people from the region had fled drought and conflict into Pakistan and had not returned to their homes. "In a sense it's lucky there weren't more people there," Fisher said.