US says humanitarian airdrops to Afghanistan successful

US military officials say an airdrop of food on Afghanistan has been successful.

Packets containing a daily ration of red beans, rice, fruit bars, peanut butter and strawberry jam have been dropped out of boxes from the back of cargo planes.

They have been dropped on areas where the US military deems need is greatest.

In Washington, defence officials say the military strikes included airdrops of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.

Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld says the cargo planes dropped 37,500 food packets to starving Afghans on the first day of air strikes to underscore the message that the strikes are meant to harm terrorists, not ordinary Afghans.

The military also dropped leaflets and made radio broadcasts into Afghanistan to explain the US action, he says. Rumsfeld also says medicine is being dropped into the country, but officials at Ramstein gave no details.

The airdrops are delivering humanitarian daily rations, plastic pouches of food enriched with vitamins and minerals to boost refugees weakened by hunger and travel.

The food, wrapped so that one packet has enough for one person for one day, does not contain any animal products so as not to violate any religious or cultural practices. Muslims, for example, do not eat pork.

The packets provide at least 2,200 calories per day. The United States has a stockpile of about two million of them.