Decks cleared for delivery of aid to Syrian towns

Damascus - It was unclear how UN trucks would reach Daesh-held areas

Convoys were to deliver aid to thousands of besieged Syrians on Wednesday in what the United Nations has described as a test for the country's warring sides ahead of a hoped-for ceasefire.
The UN announced the planned deliveries to seven areas late on Tuesday, as its envoy Staffan de Mistura held talks in Damascus aimed at restoring hope for a "cessation of hostilities" world powers want in place by Friday.
Prospects for the ceasefire - announced by top diplomats in Munich last week - have been fading as violence continues to shake Syria, including strikes on hospitals on Monday and repeated Turkish shelling of Kurdish militia.
The Syrian Red Crescent said 100 trucks carrying flour, other food supplies and medicines were preparing to leave for five besieged areas on Wednesday morning.
About 40 trucks were headed for Moadimayet Al Sham, a rebel-held town near Damascus encircled by President Bashar Al Assad's forces, Muhannad Al Asadi of the Red Crescent told.
Another 35 vehicles were to travel to Madaya and Zabadani, two other regime-besieged towns near Damascus, and 29 were to go to Fuaa and Kafraya, two Shiite towns in northwestern Idlib province besieged by rebels, he said.
An AFP journalist in Damascus saw nearly 20 trucks ready to depart for Madaya and Zabadani from outside UN offices in the Syrian capital, with about two dozen Red Crescent volunteers on hand.
Almost half a million people in Syria are in areas under siege, according to the UN.
Aid workers say several dozen people have died of starvation just in Madaya, which became a symbol of the plight of besieged Syrians after shocking images of starving residents spread last month.
The UN said on Tuesday that Syria had approved aid deliveries to two other areas - the rebel-held district of Kafr Batna outside Damascus and the eastern provincial capital of Deir Ezzor, where the regime holds parts of the city surrounded by jihadists from the Daesh group.
It was unclear how aid would be delivered through Daesh-held territory to Deir Ezzor, though previously cargo planes have airdropped assistance to regime-held neighbourhoods.
 

• MENA