Trucks deliver first food aid to Syria’s Deir Ezzor city after siege

Trucks carrying food aid arrive in the northeastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor on Thursday, as the first the supplies since government troops broke a jihadists siege are delivered via a newly opened road. (AFP)

DEIR EZZOR: Trucks carrying food entered Syria’s Deir Ezzor city on Thursday, the first time supplies have been delivered via a newly opened road after regime troops broke a terrorist siege.
A local journalist contributing to AFP confirmed that a convoy of 40 trucks carrying food had entered the city, where the army and allied forces breached a Daesh siege earlier this week.
“This is the first convoy of foodstuff to enter the city for nearly three years,” said Mouin Al-Akl, an official with the Syrian Trade Association, which contributed the supplies.
The items were to be taken to the local branch of the trade directorate and then distributed to local shops for sale, he added.
Syrian troops on Tuesday broke through a yearslong siege imposed by Daesh militants on tens of thousands of civilians in Deir Ezzor.
The Russian-backed soldiers and allied fighters opened a route through the Brigade 137 base on Deir Ezzor’s western edge and had been working since Tuesday to de-mine it to allow the convoy to enter.
A second part of the city, including its key military airport and surrounding neighborhoods, remains under Daesh siege.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said additional supplies were headed for the city, including ambulances and medication.
Another convoy carrying food but also clothing and other items is also expected to arrive in the coming days.
Some 100,000 people were estimated to be trapped in government-held areas under Daesh siege before troops broke into Deir Ezzor on Tuesday.
The regime was able to periodically bring in supplies by helicopter and the UN airdropped aid into the city, but it was otherwise cut off by the siege.