First UN aid convoy enters Syria from Turkey

A first convoy of humanitarian aid crossed into Syria from Turkey on July 24, under a new U.N.-authorized plan to send relief without Damascus' approval.
      
"Nine trucks crossed at Bab al-Salam into Syria this morning," said Amanda Pitt of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).        

"They were carrying food, shelter, water and sanitation supplies," she told AFP.
      
The U.N. Security Council last week adopted a resolution authorizing the cross-border aid deliveries without the consent of the Damascus regime, to help more than one million civilians.
      
More relief shipments are due to leave from three other crossing points - Bab al-Hawa in Turkey, al-Ramtha in Jordan and al-Yarubiyah in Iraq - in the coming months.        

More than 10.8 million Syrians are in need of aid, according to U.N. officials, who have repeatedly accused Damascus of impeding deliveries of life-saving supplies.
      
International aid agencies have hailed the U.N. cross-border aid program as a potential lifeline for millions of Syrian civilians trapped in the crossfires of the war, now in its fourth year.        

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council on Thursday that Syrian government forces were stepping up their attacks on hospitals and clinics, and that all sides were blocking aid deliveries as a "tactic of war."       

Syrian rebel groups including Islamic State fighters who control all access to routes in eastern areas are blocking humanitarian deliveries with some 711,000 civilians affected, the report said.
      
Damascus is denying approval of medicines and surgical...