Russian president says 12 planes have landed in Kabul on humanitarian mission

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin said Monday that 12 Russian transport planes had arrived in the Afghan capital, bringing staff and supplies for a humanitarian mission.

Putin told his Cabinet that the Il-76 planes carried Emergency Ministry staff, construction crews and diplomats to Kabul.

"This action was carried out at the request of the Islamic State of Afghanistan," Putin said, using the name of the Afghan government of ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Putin said the operation took place with the help of U.S. troops and northern alliance forces.

The Foreign Ministry said that experts at deactivating land mines had also arrived in Kabul to help clear the road leading from the airport in Bagram, about 25 miles to the north, to the site where the Russians plan to house their humanitarian center.

Officials said that by the end of the week, some 88 Russians would be in Kabul working to develop the center, which will coordinate humanitarian assistance to Afghans and work with the nation's future government.

Moscow also has sent diplomats to Kabul, setting up a diplomatic mission headed by special envoy Alexander Oblov, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losiukov said Monday.

Russia could set up a full-fledged embassy in Kabul in about two months, after restoring its heavily damaged old embassy building, he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russia closed its embassy in Kabul in August 1992, about four months after Islamic rebels threw out the communist regime that had been backed by the Soviet Union. Those rebel groups established a government, which the Taliban subsequently drove out. The anti-Taliban northern alliance retook Kabul and much of the rest of Afghanistan over the last month.

Russia has voiced strong support for the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.

AP-WS-11-26-01 1551EST