UN food aid trucks seized in Afghanistan

Kabul Nov 9 (IANS) Suspected Taliban fighters on Thursday seized six trucks belonging to the World Food Programme the UN agency in charge of food aid and kidnapped the drivers in a western Afghanistan province government officials said.

The trucks were reportedly transporting cooking oil flour and rice from the province of Herat to Ghor when they were intercepted along a highway in a Taliban-controlled area Efe news reported.

"We still don t know whether the Taliban have taken the food items from the trucks or not " said local government spokesperson Abdul Hai Khatibi.

Local residents are helping mediate with the attackers to secure the release of the trucks and drivers he added.

Although Khatibi confirmed that the trucks belonged to the WFP the agency s spokesperson in the country Wahidullah Amani said that only two out of the six trucks belonged to them.

"We can confirm the incident but only two contracted trucks carrying WFP food items to Feroz-Koh the capital city of Ghor faced such problems along the way " said Amani.

He added that the shipment which included enriched flour was going to be distributed to the poor in Ghor.

No organization has yet claimed responsibility for the incident that took place in a region where both the Taliban and the Islamic State terror group have a presence.

--IANS
soni/bg