Relief groups launch largest Syria aid delivery yet

Relief groups launched their largest aid delivery yet in Syria on Thursday, sending 65 trucks carrying food and medicines to a besieged rebel-held town in the country's centre, the Red Cross said.

The Red Crescent and International Committee of the Red Cross will deliver the aid to some 120,000 civilians in and around the Homs province town of Rastan, ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek told AFP.

The last time residents received aid from the ICRC was in 2012, the same year rebels seized the town.

Krzysiek said Thursday's convoy included food parcels, wheat flour and other nutritional items, as well as medicines and equipment to improve water supply in the city.

"This is the largest joint humanitarian convoy we have done in Syria so far," he told AFP.

Once they reach Rastan, ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent teams will assess the water and waste infrastructure, as well as the nutritional and other needs of residents.

Many of the 120,000 people living in and around the town had fled fighting in neighbouring Hama province.

More than four million people in Syria live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas with little or no access to food or medicines.
Source: AFP