Aid convoy in besieged Syria towns

An aid convoy yesterday entered two rebel-held towns, besieged by government forces, near the Syrian capital Damascus, for the first time since 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.The convoy, composed of 37 trucks, is to deliver food and medical assistance to people of Zamalka and Arbeen in the Eastern Ghouta region, ICRC said in a statement.“We are finally bringing much-needed humanitarian aid to 20,000 persons.”The ICRC said they provided medical items such as hygiene parcels and primary care medicines enough to treat up to 10,000 patients for three months in both towns, while the UN vehicles carried food parcels and wheat flour, as well as nutritional and medical items.The UN delivered humanitarian aid to 16 besieged areas in Syria earlier this year, except Zamalka and Arbeen.Earlier this month, an aid convoy entered the Damascus suburb of Daraya, under siege from government forces since 2012, as an international deadline for the provision of relief to beleaguered areas of Syria expired.The United States, Russia -- an ally of the Syrian government -- and other countries jointly announced that if humanitarian aid was denied to besieged areas starting from June 1, the UN’s World Food Programme would be called on to carry out air drops.Elsewhere in Syria, Islamic State yesterday forced a US-backed rebel group to retreat from territory they had earlier seized near a key town held by the extremist militia on the border with Iraq, a monitoring group reported.The retreat followed a fierce counter-attack by Islamic State against the rebel group, the New Syria Amy (NSA), near the town of al-Bu Kamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The militants recaptured al-Hamdan airport, 5km north-west of al-Bu Kamal, hours after the NSA rebels had taken over the facility, said the Britain-based watchdog, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria.Al-Bu Kamal is a major link between Islamic State’s territories in Syria and Iraq.The NSA, a small force trained by neighbouring Jordan, retreated to areas outside the eastern province Deir al-Zour near the border with Iraq, after the rebel group had lost at least seven fighters in clashes with militants, the Observatory added.On Tuesday, the NSA had advanced within 15km of al-Bu Kamal that lies about 120km south-east of Deir al-Zour, the main city in the Syrian province of the same name, which is almost entirely controlled by Islamic State.In northern Syria, at least 10 people were killed in a car bombing in a Kurd-controlled Syrian town near the Turkish border, a local doctor said.The explosion occurred in the centre of Tel Abyad, also leaving 30 people injured, Saleh al-Shawakh, a doctor at the town’s hospital, added.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.