Red Cross postpones aid convoys after
Aleppo attack
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[September 20, 2016]
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Aid convoys for four
Syrian towns will be postponed as staff reassess security after a deadly
attack on relief trucks and intensified violence, a senior official from
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.
Syrian or Russian aircraft struck an aid convoy near Aleppo, killing 12
people on Monday, a war monitor reported, as the Syrian military
declared a one-week truce over.
"This is very worrying. We see a resumption of violence, an
intensification of fighting in many locations," Robert Mardini, ICRC
director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters in Geneva.
"We had something planned in the four towns, but for now it is put on
hold to reassess the security conditions," he said, referring to
rebel-besieged Foua and Kefraya in Idlib and government-blockaded Madaya
and Zabadani near the Lebanese border.
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At least 18 of 31 trucks in a U.N. and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC)
convoy were hit on Monday along with an SARC warehouse, U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric said in New York. The convoy was delivering aid for
78,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Urm al-Kubra in Aleppo
Governorate, he said.
SARC's director in Urem al-Kubra, Omar Barakat, was among the dead,
Mardini said. "The team is in shock."
"Omar was badly injured and rescue team could not reach him for two
hours. When he was evacuated he could not survive his wounds," he said.
A separate SARC/ICRC convoy to Talbiseh in Homs province made its first
delivery since July on Monday, carrying supplies for more than 80,000
people.
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![](../images/092016pics/news_n23.jpg)
Damaged Red Cross and Red Crescent medical supplies lie inside a
warehouse after an airstrike on the rebel held Urm al-Kubra town,
western Aleppo city, Syria September 20, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar
Abdullah
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The team stayed there overnight due to intensified fighting, Mardini
said.
"Inshallah, they will be on their way back to Homs this morning," he
added.
"It is difficult to read the environment in coming hours because you
have a mixture of intensification of fighting and politicization of
humanitarian aid ... It is high time to de-link humanitarian work
from politics," Mardini said.
(This story corrects spelling of town to Urem al-Kubra in par 5 and
title of Omar Barakat in par 6.)
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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