Food and other supplies reach besieged Syrian towns, aid officials say

BEIRUT – Trucks carrying food and other desperately needed supplies began entering a trio of besieged Syrian towns on Monday, averting what aid officials had warned was a looming humanitarian disaster.

The aid shipments, which were organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Syrian Red Crescent and the United Nations, arrived late Monday in Madaya, an opposition-held town northwest of Damascus that has been besieged by pro-government forces for months amid reports of starvation.

The aid convoys are part of a U.N.-supported operation to help tens of thousands of civilians cut off for months by the fighting in Syria. Reports of starvation and images of emaciated children have raised global concerns and underscored the urgency for new peace talks that the U.N. is hoping to host in Geneva on Jan. 25.

As many as 42,000 inhabitants of Madaya have been trapped with limited access to food and medicine, according to humanitarian groups, leading to elevated levels of malnutrition. Reports from local aid agencies have indicated that at least 50 people have died from starvation and a lack of medical care in Madaya, according to a statement Monday from eight international humanitarian organizations.

The assistance to Madaya marked the culmination of complex negotiations that also allowed aid convoys on Monday to enter Fouaa and Kafraya, pro-government towns in Idlib province, some 180 miles north of Damascus, the capital.

The two northern towns, home to more than 20,000 people, predominantly Shiite Muslims, have been cut off for more than two years by armed opposition groups, including the Nusra Front, the official al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. Shiites are viewed as apostates by al-Qaida and other Sunni Islamist factions that dominate the armed opposition in Syria.