Bab al-Hawa

The U.N. Security Council on Jan. 12 renewed a cross-border aid operation into Syria for another six months and only from two border crossings with Turkey in the northwest of the war-torn country not controlled by President Bashar al-Assad.

Aid deliveries to millions of Syrian civilians were hanging in the balance on Jan. 9 ahead of the expiration of a United Nations mandate authorizing cross-border humanitarian convoys from Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

The United Nations Security Council on Dec. 20  rejected rival resolutions that would continue the delivery of humanitarian aid across borders to more than 1 million Syrians every month in mainly rebel-held areas, leaving future deliveries in question as winter arrives.