US vows to continue relief operations

ISLAMABAD—The US Government Sunday assured that it will continue its relief mission in Pakistan for the help of October 8 earthquake and announced that US has no plans to diminish its support of its ally Pakistan in its hour of need.
In a statement issued by US embassy here on the reports that relief helicopters will soon stop flying if donations to the UN would not increase, the US embassy clarified that relief operations are continuing on an accelerated basis, with increasing quantities of relief supplies being airlifted on a daily basis.
The US however expressed the hope that the international community will step up with great increased commitments to support the relief efforts.
The US Embassy said, “We agree with the UN that the international community needs to greatly step up its level support to Pakistan in order to provide humanitarian relief during what will be a protracted relief operation lasting months. We would urge all donors to do the same”.
Explaining the situation the US embassy said the day after the earthquake, four US helicopters already in Pakistan mobilized to the affected areas. The embassy further stated that two days after the earthquake, eight US military helicopters arrived in Pakistan and began immediately in distribution of food, medicines, water and other relief supplies to the areas most severely damaged by the earthquake.
The US embassy said in last three weeks US helicopters have flown nearly 800 sorties to quake stricken areas, and delivered more than 2.8 million pounds of relief supplies and evacuated nearly 3,000 people injured by the earthquake.
The US Embassy further clarified that during this operation, US has increased and plan to further increase the number of helicopters to respond to the requests and needs of the Pakistani government and Military.
On Sunday alone 21 US military helicopters remained involved in relief missions, flying dozens of sorties each day to relief centres and villages throughout the quake stricken area with more expected within coming days.
In addition, the US government has contributed $3.5 million to the UN-WFP airlift through UNHAS, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service.
The US has also contributed $ 5 million to ICRC while $2 million is also being used to support airlift capacity in Pakistan.—APP