3000 Flee Violence in Afghanistan

3,000 have fled violence in Afghanistan
Thu May 25, 7:22 AM ET

Militants killed three truck drivers hauling food for the U.S. military, and 3,000 people have fled their homes because of heavy fighting, officials in Afghanistan said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said a funding shortfall may force it to cut food aid to some 2.7 million Afghans, warning that such reductions could further destabilize the country.

The killings occurred Wednesday as three Afghan drivers were taking containers of food from Bagram, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan, to a base in Paktika province, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai.

Attacks on trucks contracted to haul fuel, equipment and other gear for the military are common, but the militants usually free the drivers.

Some 3,000 villagers were fleeing their homes in southern Kandahar province after a week of violence left scores dead across Afghanistan, said Nasim Karim, a press officer with the U.N. International Organization for Migration. Most of those who fled lived in Kandahar's Panjwayi district, the site of the fiercest fighting, and were fleeing to Kandahar city, where thousands of foreign troops are based, Karim said. Many sought shelter with relatives.

As many as 336 people have been killed in violence since May 17, according to coalition and Afghan figures. Those numbers are difficult to confirm independently because many of the villages are closed off by authorities or are in remote areas.

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