Russia's official media Wednesday played up a report that the U.S. may have supplied FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles to Syrian Kurds as the U.S. and Moscow traded accusations ahead of a tentative truce in the civil war that is supposed to start Saturday.
Continued fighting has blocked international aid convoys from reaching some areas, forcing the United Nations World Food Program to resort Wednesday to an airdrop of supplies to the northeastern city of Deir ez-Zor, which has been under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
British diplomat Stephen O'Brien, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council, "Earlier this morning, a WFP plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tons of items into Deir ez-Zor." The "high altitude" drop was challenging, he said, but initial reports from teams on the ground indicated that the "pallets have landed in the target area as planned."
It was not immediately clear what type of aircraft was used or which country supplied the plane, but a relief airdrop would not be a first for the UN. Last year, the WFP used a C-130 cargo aircraft from Australia to deliver humanitarian relief to East Timor.
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