Convoy with aid, no food enters Damascus suburb

BEIRUT — A humanitarian convoy reached a starving suburb of Syria’s capital, Damascus, for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday but did not carry any food, as the opposition called for a countrywide cease-fire for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and aid access for all Syrians.

“First humanitarian aid to reach people of #Daraya,” the Syrian office for the International Committee of the Red Cross posted Wednesday on Twitter. The organization also posted a photograph showing its vehicles driving on parched land next to bombed- out buildings.

“We’ve just entered the city,” the tweet said.

The U.N. estimates 4,000 to 8,000 people live in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which has been subject to a crippling government blockade since residents expelled security forces in the early stages of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The joint U.N., International Committee of the Red Cross, and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy that reached Daraya on Wednesday contained medicines, vaccines, baby formula and “nutritional items for children,” the Red Cross said, but no food.

“Clearly, what we brought today will not meet the needs of people in Daraya — and a one-off delivery of food will not either,” Krista Armstrong of the Red Cross said via email, saying the organization hopes to return with food Friday. “We need to have repeated and regular access to all people living in besieged places in Syria.”

The Russian military, which has been carrying out airstrikes since September to bolster Assad’s forces, said earlier in the day that the government had agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire around Daraya.

It was not immediately clear why the shipment contained no food. A 36-truck aid convoy entered neighboring Moadamiyeh, which is also under government siege, at around the same time, carrying food. The suburb last received aid in February, residents said.

The U.S.- and Russia-led International Syria Support Group last month called on the U.N. to “immediately carry out a program for air bridges and air drops for all areas in need” starting June 1 if it was denied humanitarian access to designated areas, including Daraya.

The U.S.- and Russia-led International Syria Support Group last month called on the U.N. to “immediately carry out a program for air bridges and air drops for all areas in need” starting June 1 if it was denied access to designated areas. The U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has called airdrops, which cost more than land delivery, a “last resort.”

The United Nations Security Council is set to meet Friday to discuss the possibility of starting humanitarian airdrops to besieged areas.

The United Kingdom’s ambassador to the U.N., Matthew Rycroft, said the aid going to Daraya on Wednesday was “too little, too late,” and his country’s delegation would raise the possibility of airdrops at the meeting. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, however, said he believed airdrops were impractical and that the land deliveries should be given a chance.

The office of the U.N. envoy to Syria said it was looking into “every possible means” to reach 592,700 people in besieged areas and millions more in hard-to-reach areas facing severe food shortages.

The opposition’s Higher Negotiating Committee withdrew from indirect peace talks with the government last month after violence flared and the government stalled on allowing sustained humanitarian access to besieged areas and releasing detainees.

In a letter sent to the U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday, the committee’s chief, Riad Hijab, called for a “comprehensive” Ramadan cease-fire as a precondition for resuming talks in July. The holy month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk begins next week.

In the north, Kurdish-led fighters aided by U. S.- led airstrikes launched a new advance on Manbij, an Islamic State stronghold on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to Raqqa, the extremist group’s declared capital.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia that includes Arab fighters, have meanwhile approached to within 9 miles of Manbij. The force announced a campaign to advance on areas around Raqqa last week.

“There are tens of casualties among fighters and evacuating civilians,” said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the Democratic Forces. “Daesh is using its entire means to stop the forces,” he said by telephone from near the front line, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters had recaptured at least 16 villages from the Islamic State. The monitoring group, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said coalition airstrikes supporting the advance have killed 15 civilians in the past 24 hours.

The Observatory said coalition aircraft struck at least one bridge between Manbij and Jarablus, a town on the Turkish border held by the Islamic State. A militant-affiliated news agency said coalition aircraft bombed all bridges between the two towns.