U.S. helicopters aid Pakistani flood victims

The flooding is one of several crises that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, including a suicide bombing in the northwest city of Peshawar, a plane crash that killed 152 people in the capital, and a spurt of politically motivated killings that have left dozens dead in the southern city of Karachi.

Photo: AP

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit: NorthJersey.Com | AP | Various
By Sherin Zada | The Record | August 6, 2010


KALAM, Pakistan — U.S. Army choppers flew their first relief missions in Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest Thursday, airlifting hundreds of stranded people to safety from a devastated tourist town and distributing emergency aid.

In the country's south, authorities began evacuating a half-million people as the worst monsoon rains in decades posed a threat of more destruction.

The floods have killed an estimated 1,500 people over the past week, most in the northwest, the center of Pakistan's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Some 4.2 million Pakistanis have been affected, including many in eastern Punjab province, which has seen numerous villages swallowed by rising water in recent days.


The flooding is one of several crises that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, including a suicide bombing in the northwest city of Peshawar, a plane crash that killed 152 people in the capital, and a spurt of politically motivated killings that have left dozens dead in the southern city of Karachi.

On Thursday afternoon, a bus plunged into a swollen river in Pakistan's section of the disputed Kashmir region, killing 20 people and leaving around 20 missing. Eight injured passengers were rescued, government official Chaudhry Imtiaz said.

The government's overall response has been faulted, especially because Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari left for a visit to Europe as the crises piled up.

Foreign governments and aid agencies have stepped in to help the beleaguered government. It has been toughest in the northwest, which has not seen such flooding since 1929, and where many bridges and roads are washed out.

Four U.S. Chinook helicopters landed in the resort town of Kalam in the Swat Valley, which has been cut off for more than a week, according to a reporter there. They flew hundreds of people — many of them vacationers — to safer areas lower down, he said. The northwest valley is a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said 800 people were evacuated and relief goods distributed.

The United States is unpopular in Pakistan, and Washington hopes the relief missions will help improve its image, however marginally. But the mission could draw criticism from nationalist politicians and others in Pakistan who are hostile to the idea of American boots on the ground, even if they are helping after a disaster.


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