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Aid enters town near Damascus for first time in 4 years

Xinhua, May 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Aid convoys entered the Syrian town of Harasta in the countryside of the capital Damascus on Wednesday for the first time in four years, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The convoy carries food, medicine and essentials for 10,000 people, said the ICRC.

Harasta was among the first areas near Damascus to fall in the quagmire of the civil conflict which erupted in 2011. As the crisis dragged on, the Syrian government forces laid siege on the town which has become one of the key bastions of the rebels east of Damascus.

Only a week earlier, the ICRC attempted to send aid into the besieged town of Daraya in western Damascus, but was denied entry at the last military checkpoint.

The ICRC then said it had obtained all approvals to enter the town, urging the authorities to grant access for the desperately needed food and medicines.

The ICRC said recently that 13.2 million people need immediate humanitarian assistance in Syria, of whom six million are children.

Now in its sixth year, the conflict in Syria is the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis in the world, with no end in sight, the ICRC said. Endit