U.K., Russia join in food aid to Afghans

LONDON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- The British government on Friday announced that it would link with Russia to send convoys loaded with thousands of tons of food into Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

Clare Short, the government's secretary for international development, said 60 convoys would deliver 9,000 tons of food to areas of Afghanistan controlled by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

Short said local truckers familiar with the territory would drive the convoys from Tajikistan across the rugged Pamir Mountains into northeastern Afghanistan.

"This new mission is through notoriously difficult areas," said Short, "and it is the local Afghan truckers who are keeping the lifeline open by trucking good in."

The aid mission was expected to last about two months, she said. The first convoy is expected to get under way on Nov. 10.

Britain is contributing $870,000 as its part of the mission, the government said. Also involved in the aid project are Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry and the U.N. World Food Program. British officials said other central Asian nations had pledged cooperation in the mission.

Thousands of people have left their homes as a result of U.S.-led airstrikes against suspected Taliban sites in Afghanistan. The United States has been bombing the Taliban because of the group's refusal to hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, the U.S. authorities' prime suspect in the search of a mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Short said food is beginning to reach the Afghan people in increasing volumes but that thousands of men, women and children in the region are still at risk from starvation.

Their situation -- as well as the joint convoy mission -- is complicated by the onset of Afghanistan's usually bitter winter that is expected to begin at any time.