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Life-saving aid reaches Kurdish-majority town: UN / Photo: © AFP
NYSE - LSE
Life-saving aid reaches Kurdish-majority town: UN
A UN humanitarian convoy arrived Sunday in the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane, which has been filled recently with people displaced by clashes in northern Syria, a spokesperson told AFP.
Earlier Sunday, Syria's military said it had opened a humanitarian corridor to the town, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic and once a symbol of Kurdish fighters' victory against Islamic State group (IS) jihadists.
The aid came as the Syrian authorities and Kurdish forces extended a ceasefire agreement after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government troops.
Earlier this week, residents in Kobane told AFP they lacked food, water and power, and that the enclave was flooded with people who had fled the Syrian army's advances.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA had said on Sunday that 24 trucks were en route to the town carrying "life-saving aid, including fuel, bread, and ready-to-eat rations, to support people affected by recent developments".
The UN refugee agency's spokesperson in Syria, Celine Schmitt, later told AFP the convoy had arrived.
The convoy was coordinated with the Syrian government, according to the UN.
In a statement, the Syrian military said it was opening two corridors, one to Kobane and another in nearby Hasakeh province to allow "the entry of aid".
- Trading accusations -
Kobane is hemmed in by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides. It is around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Kurds' stronghold in Syria's far northeast.
Kurdish forces accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on the town.
On Saturday, Syria's government and Kurdish forces extended a four-day ceasefire by another 15 days. Damascus said it was intended to support the US transfer of IS detainees from Syria to prisons in Iraq, which started earlier this week.
On Sunday night however, the two sides were trading accusations of violations.
The army told state media that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had targeted its positions with drones.
The SDF accused "Damascus-affiliated factions" of attacks around Kobane, including one that killed a child.
The SDF, who have lost large areas to government forces during weeks of clashes, now find themselves restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and Kobane.
Kobane, which Kurdish forces liberated from a lengthy siege by IS in 2015, took on symbolic value as their first major victory against the jihadists.
It took another four years for the SDF, supported by a US-led international coalition, to defeat IS territorially in Syria.
Syria's new Islamist authorities are demanding that the SDF disband. Washington has said the purpose of its alliance with the SDF has largely ended.
On Saturday, Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party said the situation in Kobane had escalated from a crisis into a "deadly catastrophe", after it sent a delegation to visit the town.
strs-rh/smw/jj
O. Karlsson--BTZ
