US offers $364m more in aid

washington — The US State Department said it was providing an additional $364 million in humanitarian assistance to help Syrians caught up in the country’s civil war, bringing total US humanitarian spending for Syria to about $5.9 billion.

Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard said the funding would help provide food, shelter, safe drinking water, medical care and other support for millions of Syrian refugees and the communities that host them. Richard told a State Department briefing about three-quarters of the additional funding would help people still inside Syria and the rest would assist Syrians who have fled the country.

She also said the United States had admitted some 85,000 refugees over the past fiscal year, which ends September 30. That figure included about 12,500 Syrian refugees, exceeding the administration’s goal of 10,000, she said. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the push for additional humanitarian aid funds came in part because of deteriorating conditions in Aleppo after the collapse of a ceasefire sponsored by the United States and Russia.

The forces of President Assad have launched a push against rebelheld areas of the city, where some 250,000 civilians are believed to be trapped. Bombing has killed hundreds of people, many of whom died in buildings collapsed by bunker-buster bombs.—