[You don't suppose this is a ploy, when you connect it with aid agencies' pleas for a lull in the bombing so they can take in more aid (for the Taliban to sieze)?]

BBC Thursday, 18 October, 2001, 11:38 GMT 12:38 UK

Taleban return 'stolen' aid Six million people urgently need aid, says the WFP

Afghanistan's ruling Taleban have handed back a warehouse containing thousands of tons of grain seized from the World Food Program (WFP) two days ago.

A WFP spokesman in Peshawar in Pakistan told the Associated Press: "We're still checking, but it looks like everything's intact."

The store in Kabul was taken on Tuesday night when armed Taleban guerrillas entered the building and told staff to leave.

However aid agencies are warning that continuous bombing and instability will only lead to the situation deteriorating further.

The BBC's Susannah Price says the medical aid organisation Medicins Sans Frontiers has also reported that several of its supply warehouses in the country have been looted.

Another WFP warehouse in Kandahar was seized by the Taleban on Tuesday, but it is not known whether this too has been handed back.

The warehouses hold a combined total of nearly 7,000 metric tons of wheat, more than half of the WFP's supplies in the country.

The supplies have been stockpiled to feed desperate Afghan civilians. Aid agencies estimate that about 6 million people are relying on aid to feed them through the winter.

In other developments:

US bombing of Afghanistan continues as fierce fighting is reported between the Taleban and rebel Northern Alliance forces near the strategically important northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif US Secretary of State Colin Powell suggests peacekeepers may be needed if the Taleban crumble, as he and President George W Bush arrive in China for an Apec regional summit UK Foreign Office is urgently investigating a report the Taleban have arrested an "American or British" man inside Afghanistan Taleban leader Mullah Omar sends a rallying radio message to his commanders, telling them God is on their side in a "holy war against infidels" Further sporadic fire is reported between Indian and Pakistani troops across the line of control in Kashmir as India says it will be "ruthless" with infiltrators

Disruption

The incidents are further disruption to the work of the aid agencies, whose mission has already been complicated by US bombing and the deteriorating situation inside Afghanistan.

Catherine Bertini, the executive director of the WFP has warned that further impediments to the aid program could lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe."

During a news conference, Ms Bertini said an estimated 52,000 tons of wheat per month is needed to feed those in need and the WFP aimed to step up its aid deliveries.

"In the next ten days we expect to deliver about 16,000 tons if all goes well," she said.

"If we can sustain this, then we can come fairly close to our monthly goal of 52,000 tons."

The WFP says it will continue will consider using targetted air drops of supplies if its daily road convoys of supplies do not succeed in getting aid to remote areas.

Other aid agencies warn that further complications, particularly in delivering aid to those most in need are inevitable.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's UK director has said that lorry drivers are scared of entering Afghanistan after the US mistakenly bombed a compound belonging to the International Red Cross in Kabul this week.

'Compelling reason'

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has ruled out a halt to the bombing, and said the Taleban remain the biggest obstacle to getting aid to those in need.

But Oxfam spokeswoman Helen Palmer told BBC News Online that while "bombing is not the only hold-up to aid, it is a very compelling reason."

"We have 120 staff in Afghanistan, but their hands are effectively tied. WFP aid has run out - the Kabul warehouse is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed," she said.

Ms Palmer added that the situation in and around Kabul was currently too dangerous to allow for the effective distiubution of aid.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Answers

maybe they poisoned it so they could blame that on the US?

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

this is a related thread for the initial story of them taking the stuff.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001