US preparing for possible air drops of humanitarian supplies over Syria
Source: Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing for possible air drops of humanitarian relief over besieged areas of Syria, where hundreds of thousands of people have been cut off for months from food and medicine and are at risk of starvation.
Administration officials emphasized that air-dropped relief is only in the planning stages and has not yet been approved. But U.S. forces, who have conducted similar operations in northern Iraq and Syria, could move within days to implement a decision.
U.S. and coalition aircraft began bombing Islamic State-held areas elsewhere in Syria 18 months ago. But approval of the air-drop plan, while a non-combat operation, would mark the first time American planes have flown directly into the contested areas of Syria's civil war.
Consideration of the effort comes as a blizzard of Russian air strikes in and around the city of Aleppo this week have cut rebel and humanitarian supply lines from Turkey. United Nations efforts to deliver relief on the ground to besieged areas have been slowed to a trickle. U.N.-led peace talks, including a ceasefire, were suspended Wednesday in Geneva. Russia's foreign ministry said Thursday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry, during telephone conversations this week, had "agreed to coordinate possible measures to deliver humanitarian aid to the appropriate districts of Syria by air, using military-transport aircraft."
Read more: http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/us-preparing-for-possible-air-drops-of-humanitarian-supplies-over-syria-1.392558
Russia & Assad bomb the hell out of civilians & the US sends in bandaids & food.
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