| New York Times | - |
GENEVA
- More than 100 trucks laden with emergency food and medicine began
deliveries on Wednesday to tens of thousands of desperate Syrians in
five locations besieged for months by the civil war, United Nations
officials and relief workers reported.
GENEVA
— More than 100 trucks laden with emergency food and medicine began
deliveries on Wednesday to tens of thousands of desperate Syrians in
five locations besieged for months by the civil war, United Nations officials and relief workers reported.
The
deliveries were the first significant aid to the afflicted civilians
under a diplomatic arrangement negotiated during a meeting in Munich
last week by the so-called International Syria
Support Group of 17 nations and finalized on Tuesday between the United
Nations and the Syrian government, which had blocked access to the
locations.
International
aid agencies had loaded 115 trucks with food and medical supplies for
100,000 people in the western towns of Madaya and Zabadani, the
northwestern towns of Fouaa and Kfarya, and the Damascus suburb of
Moadhamiyeh. The trucks started moving in convoys on Wednesday and by
evening at least some of them had reached all but Fouaa and Kfarya,
relief workers and independent monitors said.
The
convoy to Madaya was the first delivery in nearly a month to that town,
where photographs of residents who starved to death have joined the
list of iconic images of the five-year-old Syrian war. United Nations
officials say ambulances of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have made
frequent visits and evacuated some of the most urgent cases.
Stranded at the Border
For Syrians fleeing airstrikes in
Aleppo Province and hoping to find refuge in Turkey, it remains to be
seen what the recent cease-fire agreement means. Most of them are still
stuck at the border.
By NATALIA V. OSIPOVA on Publish Date February 12, 2016.
Photo by Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.
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The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group
with a network of activists in Syria, reported that a Syrian Arab Red
Crescent delegation had entered Madaya early on Wednesday with a mobile
clinic to treat residents who have been seriously wounded in bombings
and other attacks.
The
aid deliveries began as members of the International Syria Support
Group, made up of countries closely involved in the Syrian conflict,
including the United States and Russia,
prepared to convene a meeting of its humanitarian task force in Geneva
on Thursday to discuss expanding the aid deliveries to hundreds of
thousands of people marooned in at least 15 besieged towns and
inaccessible areas.
The
group is seeking what it has described as a “cessation of hostilities”
in the war to create the basis for a political settlement between
President Bashar al-Assad and his adversaries, but there has been little
indication that any of the antagonists or their backers are ready to
halt fighting.
Merkel Calls for No-Fly Zone in Syria
Speaking in Berlin, the German
chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his
backers and the coalition fighting the Islamic State group to reach an
agreement and establish a no-fly zone in the country.
By REUTERS on Publish Date February 17, 2016.
Photo by Markus Schreiber/Associated Press.
Watch in Times Video »
If
anything, Syrian forces and their Russian allies have intensified
attacks in recent days, particularly in rebel-held parts of northern
Syria, including the city of Aleppo, once the country’s commercial
center.
On
Monday at least four hospitals in northern Syria, including one run by
Doctors Without Borders, were hit in aerial attacks that killed dozens
of people, including children. The area is a focal point of bombing by
Syrian and Russian forces. Russia denied responsibility, and Syria’s top
diplomat at the United Nations said Doctors Without Borders should
blame itself for having operated in his country without government
permission.
The
dangers of traveling in northern Syria were reflected Wednesday in a
last-minute decision by United Nations officials to scrap for security
reasons a planned visit to opposition-controlled areas of eastern
Aleppo.
Officials
of the World Health Organization had received authorization from all
parties for a trip to the eastern part of the city, which the United
Nations has not visited for two years. But after setting out on the
journey the team received instructions to turn back, Elizabeth Hoff, the
W.H.O. representative in Syria, said by telephone.
Nick Cumming-Bruce reported
from Geneva, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed
reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
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