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UN Trucks Carry Wheat to Afghanistan
A convoy of trucks carrying 280 tons of wheat left for Afghanistan's troubled capital on Sunday, part of a United Nations effort to avoid widespread starvation amid the threat of a U.S. military strike.
Francesco Luna, a World Food Program spokesman in Islamabad, said a convoy of eight trucks left for Kabul from Pakistan's northern border city of Peshawar. A WFP convoy with 200 tons of wheat also left Peshawar on Saturday, the first food shipments to Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Two additional convoys with another 200 tons of food will depart either Sunday or Monday, Luna said.
Another convoy of 19 trucks carrying food, medicine, clothes, soap, blankets, school books and other supplies from the U.N. Children Fund left Peshawar on Saturday, heading for an opposition alliance opposed to the Taliban.
The United Nations fears that if the United States attacks Afghanistan ¡ª a country already plagued by war, drought and poverty ¡ª up to 1.5 million Afghans will seek shelter in Pakistan and other neighboring countries. In preparation for such an influx, the U.N. refugee agency announced its first emergency flight of supplies to Pakistan.
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