THE United Nations' first relief airlift to Syria from Iraq will deliver food and winter supplies to the mostly Kurdish northeast this week with the permission of both governments, the UN High Commissioner For Refugees agency has said.
The airbridge, using Ilyushin-76 commercial cargo planes to Hassakeh from Arbil, northern Iraq, will begin tomorrow.
Up to 12 flights are scheduled until Sunday, said Amin Awad, director of the agency's Middle East and North Africa Bureau.
UN agencies have ferried limited aid supplies into Syria from Iraq and Lebanon, but not via Turkey because of objections from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. Mr Awad said: "This is the first time the aid goes through Iraq."
The cities of Hassakeh and Qamishli, where there are 60,000 vulnerable people, will receive food and relief items. The cargo will include blankets, kitchen sets, plastic tarpaulins for shelter, sleeping mats, and jerry cans.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article