Medical Aid Unable to Enter Rebel-Held Aleppo
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been unable to enter rebel-held Aleppo to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to civilians despite a government promise last month to grant it access, Reuters reports.
An estimated 240,000 medical treatments from WHO and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are being held in a warehouse in a government-controlled part of the city, the organization said in a statement this week.
WHO was planning to deliver the aid to rebel-held Aleppo and the besieged districts of Mouadamiya, in Damascus, and eastern Ghouta, outside the capital, within the week.
According to the U.N., at least 212,000 people are under siege in Aleppo, mostly by government forces who have besieged the city from three flanks. However, all sides have prevented the delivery of medical aid across front lines.
“The non-governmental Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations, made up of Syrian doctors, says cholera, typhoid, scabies and tuberculosis are spreading among the 360,000 people in rebel-held Aleppo for lack of treatments or vaccines,” according to Reuters.
Jabhat al-Nusra Launches Attack on Shiite Towns in Northern Syria
Jabhat al-Nusra launched an attack on the predominately Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in northern Syria, AP reports.
Jabhat al-Nusra and several Syrian rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime have besieged and tried to take over the towns since 2013. Both towns are strategically located off a highway linking Aleppo with the Turkish border.
“There are fears that if the towns fall into militant hands, there could be reprisals against its Shiite residents,” according to the wire service.
Jabhat al-Nusra claimed on its Twitter feed that it had destroyed Shiite mosques.
The news comes following a report this week that militants from the group blew up a 13th-century tomb of the Islamic imam Nawawi in Deraa province near the Jordanian border.
The group deepened its foothold in northwestern Syria in November, consolidating its control over most of Idlib province, and expelling moderate rebel groups from the area.
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