Aid Reaches Eastern Ghouta for First Time Since November

An aid convoy entered the besieged Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday – the first time humanitarian assistance has reached the opposition holdout in more than two months, Reuters reported.

The last aid convoy to enter the besieged rebel enclave was on November 28, according to Reuters.

Some 400,000 people are trapped in Eastern Ghouta, with little access to food and medicine. Their dire situation has been compounded by escalated military attacks, which have killed hundreds since December 29.

The U.N. last week called for an immediate cease-fire to allow aid organizations to access the besieged community.

Wednesday’s aid convoy consisted of nine trucks carrying food, healthcare items and other supplies for 7,200 people (less than 2 percent of the population), Reuters said.

Relief items included a month’s worth of food rations for more than 7,000 civilians, according to the Syria country director for the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP).

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the aid convoy also carried some 1.8 tonnes of medical supplies – enough to provide 10,000 treatments, Reuters stated.

U.N. Envoy Says Current Escalation Most Violent and Worrying in Years

A surge in violence across Syria has created some of the most worrying and dangerous moments in the conflict in years, the U.N. envoy for Syria warned Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Speaking at a Security Council meeting, Staffan de Mistura called on warring parties “to de-escalate immediately and unconditionally.” He also appealed to the guarantors of the so-called de-escalation zone agreement – Russia, Turkey and Iran – “to use their influence to help reduce violence,” the AP said.

In recent weeks, fighting has flared across the country. The Syrian government is fighting rebels in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta; Turkey, meanwhile, is battling Kurdish groups in the northern enclave of Afrin, and the U.S. has engaged in confrontations with pro-government forces in the country’s east.

The envoy said that more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the first week of February alone in fighting over rebel-held Idlib and in escalated government attacks on Eastern Ghouta.

Moscow to Regulate Mercenaries: Russian M.P.

The Russian parliament is working on legislation to regulate private military contractors after reports alleged a number of Russian mercenaries were killed in Syria last week, the AP reported.

“The state must be directly involved in issues related to the life and health of our citizens,” Retired Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, head of the defense committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said, explaining that the government needs to oversee private military contractors.

His comments come after reports surfaced this week alleging that a number of Russian private military contractors had been killed in a defensive U.S.-led coalition attack on pro-government forces in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province on February 7.

It remains unclear how many Russians were killed in the attack. The AP put the death toll at four, while noting that reports of more casualties continue to surface.

Neither Moscow nor Washington has confirmed that Russian mercenaries were killed in coalition strikes. If officially confirmed, the deaths would “represent the first direct clash between Russian and U.S. forces in the chaotic Syrian battlefield – the long-feared scenario that Moscow and Washington have anxiously sought to avoid,” the AP said.

Recommended Reads

• The Atlantic: Syria’s War Has Never Been More International
• Bloomberg: Syria Is the New Afghanistan
• Brookings: The New Geopolitics of Turkey, Syria and the West
• Al Jazeera: Untying the Knot of the Israeli Attack on Syria
• Al-Monitor: What Are Real Reasons Behind Russian Troop Drawdown in Syria?