U.S. Sends Aid to Flood-Hit Balkans

The United States is sending 26 tons of humanitarian aid to the Balkans to help with relief efforts after floods devastated the region, the Pentagon said Monday.

The assistance included water purification units, water cans, generators, fuel, kitchen equipment, sleeping bags, shovels and wet weather gear, a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Cathy Wilkinson, said.

U.S. aircraft were ferrying 4,500 items from Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, with the aid due to arrive on Tuesday.

The move was made in response to a request for assistance from governments in the region "in support of ongoing flood relief efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina," she said.

The U.S. flights came as floods left a trail of destruction in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, killing at least 47 people. The flood waters have raised fears of disease from dead animals and that unexploded mines from the region's wars in the 1990s could be dislodged.