BEIRUT (AP) – A humanitarian convoy reached a starved suburb of Syria’s capital for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday but did not bring any food, as the opposition called for a countrywide cease-fire for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and aid access for all Syrians.
In the north, Kurdish-led fighters aided by U.S.-led airstrikes launched a new advance on the town of Manbij, an Islamic State stronghold on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to Raqqa, the extremist group’s de facto capital.
The U.N. estimates that 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 Wednesday contained medicines, vaccines, baby formula, and “nutritional items for children,” the ICRC 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 ICRC told the AP 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.”