Aid heads for Madaya

Dozens of aid trucks headed yesterday to the besieged rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya, where more than two dozen people are reported to have starved to death.

The aid convoys were set to arrive in the town after an outpouring of international concern and condemnation over the dire conditions in Madaya, where some 42,000 people are living under a government siege.

The delivery will happen simultaneously with aid entering two government-held towns under rebel siege in the northwest of the country. It comes after the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said some 28 people had died of starvation in Madaya since December 1.

According to the UN, an estimated 400,000 people are living under siege in 15 areas across Syria, reports Al Jazeera.

Residents have described desperate scenes, saying they have been reduced to eating weeds and paying exorbitant prices for what little food could be smuggled through the siege.

Forty-four trucks operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Syrian Red Crescent, the United Nations and World Food Programme left from Damascus for Madaya yesterday afternoon.

Earlier, 21 trucks carrying similar supplies left for the government-held towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, which are under rebel siege in the northwest of the country. Fuaa and Kafraya are more than 300 kilometres from Damascus, while Madaya is about 40 kilometres from the capital.

The trucks are carrying food, water, infant formula, blankets and medication for acute and chronic illnesses, as well as surgical supplies.

Meanwhile, at least 12 children and three adults were killed in a Russian air strike that hit a school in Syria's Aleppo province yesterday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the three adults included a teacher, and that the strike in the town of Anjara also injured at least 20 people, all of them children and teachers.

The monitor said there had been heavy air strikes and clashes between government and rebel forces since Sunday in the northern province, which is controlled by a mixture of moderate and Islamist rebels.

Photos distributed by media activists in Aleppo province showed a classroom full of rubble with the wooden tops of desks blown off their metal frames.