Britain, France pressure UN over Syria aid drops

Humanitarian aid drops to besieged areas in Syria are not imminent and need regime approval, the United Nations said yesterday, despite urgent calls from Britain and France for deliveries to start.

In northern Syria, meanwhile, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance yesterday pressed its advance towards the town of Manbij held by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

And in the regime's coastal stronghold of Latakia, a suicide bombing killed several people and wounded many near a mosque, sources said. It follows bombings last month claimed by IS in the nearby cities of Jableh and Tartus that killed at least 170 people.

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.

A civil defence member carries an injured girl at the site. Photo: Reuters

According to the United Nations, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- the majority surrounded by government forces -- and another four million in hard-to-reach areas.

Britain has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting today to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with air drops.

In north Syria, fighters from a Kurdish-Arab alliance on Thursday were 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the IS-held town of Manbij, a monitor said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance had seized 20 villages outside the town, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The clashes are very violent and IS is putting up fierce resistance," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The US-backed SDF last week launched an offensive north of the jihadists' Syrian stronghold of Raqa city.

This week the alliance opened a new front towards Manbij, which lies on a key supply route between the IS-held town of Jarabulus on the Turkish border and Raqa.

Syria's main opposition group on Wednesday called on the UN to implement a truce in all of Syria except areas under IS control during the holy month of Ramadan which begins next week.

In the second city of Aleppo, at least five people were killed on Thursday in regime rocket fire on a rebel-held district, the civil defence said.