UN resumes food air drops in Deir Ezzor

A girl blows bubbles amid the rubble of buildings in the opposition-held area of Daraa in southern Syria. (AFP)

GENEVA: The UN said Tuesday it had resumed air drops of desperately needed aid to Deir Ezzor in Syria after halting the deliveries over two weeks ago due to heavy fighting.
The UN’s World Food Programme had on Jan. 15 suspended air drops to the eastern city due to heavy fighting after a fierce assault by Daesh militants.
Daesh has laid siege to Deir Ezzor and its 100,000 residents since 2015 and already controls large parts of the city, but earlier this month moved further into regime-held territory, prompting fierce clashes and heavy bombardment by the Syrian military and Russia.
WFP said it had resumed the air drops — the only way to get aid into the city — on Sunday after finding a “new, safer location for the drop zone.”
“We are glad that we can continue to bring life-saving food and other aid supplies to this besieged town,” WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luetscher told reporters in Geneva.
She said the agency had been unable to use the old drop zone due to “a real danger to the volunteers on the ground.”
Since deliveries to Deir Ezzor began in April 2016, the UN has staged 179 air drops, containing more than 3,340 metric tons of food and other aid, supporting some 93,500 people in need, WFP said.
Meanwhile, a coalition fighting Daesh in Syria has received US armored vehicles for the first time and a promise of new American support, a coalition spokesman said Tuesday.
“American armored vehicles have arrived for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for the first time. This happened after the new US administration came to power,” spokesman Talal Sello told AFP.
He said the decision to supply the vehicles was taken by President Donald Trump’s administration, rather than in a simple continuation of US support under former President Barack Obama.
“Before we used to receive light weapons, ammunition... with these armored vehicles we’ve entered a new phase in the (US) support. It’s a sign,” Sello added.
“We have had meetings with representatives of the new administration, and they promised us extra support.”
The SDF has long been a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq, and Washington has previously supplied the coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters with light weaponry and has sent US and other Western special forces as “advisers.”
The US-led coalition has also backed the force with heavy air strikes targeting Daesh fighters.
The alliance has caused tensions between Washington and ally Turkey, which considers the main component of the SDF — the Kurdish YPG force — to be a “terrorist” organization.
The SDF has been battling since November 5 to oust the terrorists from the city of Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital in Syria.
Sello said the Trump administration had pledged extra support “particularly in the fight for Raqqa.”
In a two-month offensive, the SDF has taken large areas of northern Raqqa province. The alliance was formed in October 2015, after the YPG Kurdish militia had already scored a string of victories against Daesh in northern Syria with air support from the US-led coalition.
Trump has said his focus in Syria will be battling Daesh, and on Saturday signed an executive order giving the US military 30 days to devise a plan to “defeat” the terrorist group.
The order, which called for a “comprehensive strategy and plans for the defeat of Daesh,” was seen as meaning more US forces and military hardware moving into Iraq and Syria.