Hyder: Taliban on 'very high alert'

(CNN) -- The U.S. is getting ready to deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to refugees inside Afghanistan. In the northern part of the country, the International Red Cross also is distributing food to displaced people. CNN anchor Kyra Phillips spoke on the phone with Kamal Hyder, who is reporting the plight of the refugees from Afghanistan.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Go ahead and tell us the mood right now and the situation that's happening at this time. Where are you and what is life like for the refugees at this moment?

KAMAL HYDER: I'm in eastern Afghanistan. As far as the refugees are concerned, most of those refugees are on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is about an hour-and-a-half from where I am. Here, near Jalalabad, where I'm located, it's business as usual. In fact, shops are now opening in Jalalabad and there's more people seen here.

And of course, people are tight-lipped as far as their loyalty to the king or to the government (is) concerned. ... They're keeping quiet because of the very high alert by the Taliban intelligence agencies there.

PHILLIPS: And there has been a number of reports about food and water being blocked and not getting into the areas. Can you tell us if, indeed, the amount of food and water needed is getting to them?

HYDER: Yes, in fact, on that count, ... the World Food Programme was carrying on with its week's supplies to Afghanistan -- to Kabul and to Herat. What they did, a week ago, was to send a test drive of 200 tons to Herat and after that, they quadrupled that amount. ...

Their grain supplies, or grain in regions like Kandahar and all that, (is) still within their control. So the situation, though serious enough, is being tackled in a very professional way, as we see ... by the World Food Programme.

PHILLIPS: Kamal, in addition to the refugees this morning, ... what else can you tell us about the anti-aircraft guns -- or some say it was a SAM, a surface-to-air missile -- that fired at a U.S. aircraft, (or what was) believed to be a U.S. aircraft?

HYDER: Well, the people of Kabul now understand fully well that it was an intelligence aircraft. I mean, for intelligence gathering for reconnaissance purposes, because you must remember that a week ago, the Taliban were able to shoot down a drone in the northern area as well, where the Taliban and the Northern Alliance are pitted against each other.

Taliban sources were saying that the reconnaissance mission there was to try and see Taliban positions, frontline positions. ... After firing at this aircraft, they found out that it was a drone indeed. And they used anti-aircraft artillery plus eyewitness accounts of at least one missile being fired at this target, which apparently missed the target. But the Taliban authorities, on the other hand, were saying that there were no missiles fired, and they tried to bring this drone down with their anti-aircraft artillery -- which of course, failed.

PHILLIPS: And once again, we do want to emphasize the point you did make, Kamal, and that was that the aircraft was not hit.