Humanitarian air drops criticised after US aid kills woman in her home

The European Commission criticised America yesterday for distributing aid by air drops after an Afghan civilian was killed by a bundle of humanitarian supplies which crushed her home.

The incident, near Mazar-i-Sharif, has strengthened criticism of a policy which Europeans have long regarded as ineffective.

Preparing for a visit to Afghanistan early next week, Poul Nielson, the European Commissioner for development, said there were much better ways of distributing food.

Mr Nielson said that the air drop of food "is not the method we use and we have reasons why we are not doing it like this". He added: "During the whole period of the war it has been the case that trucks have been moving food into Afghanistan. All our experience has confirmed that this is the best way to do it."

Even though some supplies stored in warehouses have been looted, this system is "clearly better than dropping" aid, Mr Nielson added.

So far, Western politicians have stayed away from Afghanistan since war broke out, making Mr Nielson's visit unusual. He said yesterday that his main priority was to help an assessment of the country's reconstruction needs.

The air drop which killed the Afghan woman was delivered by a US military aircraft that dropped aid from a high altitude with a parachute about 120 miles northeast of Mazar-i-Sharif, near the border with Uzbekistan. The supplies of wheat, blankets and cold weather equipment weighed between 225 and 450kg and hit the house in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The US said it "deeply regrets any unnecessary loss of life" and promised corrective action but added that it was preparing to drop its two millionth package of humanitarian rations over Afghanistan. A second, safer system is also in place under which rations are packed into large cardboard boxes that tear apart when they are dropped from the back of the plane. The ration packages, each about the size and weight of a paperback book, then fall individually to the ground. But this system cannot be used to deliver substantial supplies for the onset of winter.