Medical aid arrives from US

Ten containers carrying 375,000 US dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment arrived in Beirut on September 24 as part of the US aid program to Lebanon.

"The containers come directly from the US military to the Lebanese people," said US ambassador Richard Jones at the Beirut port.

The supplies will be distributed to four nongovernmental organizations: Lebanese Red Cross (four containers), Secure Popular (three), the Welfare Association (two) and the Knights of Malta (one).

Jones said that the aid was part of the follow up plan to the 1996 Friends of Lebanon conference in Washington and represents part of the five-year US allotment of 60 US million dollars to the country,

Adding that the US is "putting its money where its mouth is," Jones said that its humanitarian assistance program has spent 30 US million dollars in Lebanon over the past five years.