October 24, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba'an 6, 1422

TEHRAN, Oct 23: US air strikes damaged UN World Food Programme warehouses in Herat at the weekend, but the stocks were saved, the WFP representative in Iran said on Tuesday.

Marius de Gaay Fortman said the “warehouses suffered damage, but the stocks were untouched” in the Saturday attacks.

Fortman did not give any further details, but another humanitarian source said the walls surrounding the warehouses had been destroyed.

The WFP Tuesday dispatched 100 tons of flour across the Iranian border, destined for Herat, following 120 tons donated by the United States last week.

But Souleyman Diallo, the UNICEF representative in Tehran, said a delayed convoy of 13,000 blankets had still not left for Herat on Tuesday after having been put on hold at the weekend.

UNICEF said on Sunday that it had postponed delivery of the blankets as a safety precaution because of the risky security situation in the western Afghan city.

Herat, located about 100kms from the Iranian border, has repeatedly been the target of US air strikes since the campaign against Taliban militia began on Oct 7.—AFP