15 killed as Syrian forces bomb central town to wrest it from rebels

Syrian government forces heavily shelled the central town of Morek in an attempt to wrest it from rebels, activists said on Thursday.

Military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives on the city overnight, said the Local Coordination Committees. More than 20 bombs were dropped by aircraft on the town on Wednesday, reported the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Morek is one of three towns that lie on a strategic highway linking central and northern Syria. Rebels have been holding the town for the past four months.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad appear to be trying to seize Morek to supply the Wadi Deif military base further north. The Observatory said at least 15 people, including four civilians, were killed on Wednesday in the fighting.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme rushed on Wednesday to put monitors at Syrian border posts, and the UN children’s agency Unicef had aid ready for the first convoys to cross into rebel-held areas under the authorisation of the UN Security Council.

The Security Council on Monday approved humanitarian access without Syrian government consent into opposition areas at four border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, even though Syria has warned it deems such deliveries an attack on its territory.

The unanimously adopted resolution established for 180 days a monitoring mechanism for loading aid convoys in neighbouring countries, which will then notify Syria of the “humanitarian nature of these relief consignments”.

Diplomats said this mechanism would likely involve a handful of monitors at each approved border crossing — Al Yarubiyah on the Iraq border, Al Ramtha from Jordan and Bab Al Salam and Bab Al Hawa from Turkey.

UN aid chief Valerie Amos, WFP director Ertharin Cousin and Unicef director Anthony Lake said WFP teams on the ground were urgently putting monitors in place on the Syrian border and that Unicef had supplies, including blankets, syringes, water purification materials and hygiene kits, ready for delivery.

The joint statement did not say when the first convoys were expected to cross into Syria or at which border post. “Hungry, homeless children don’t know or care whether they are in a government-controlled area or an opposition-controlled area. They just want food and a safe place to live,” said Amos, Cousin and Lake.

“We must do everything we can to help them, bringing aid by the most direct routes, whether they are across borders or across conflict lines, and this resolution will help us to achieve that,” the joint statement said.

The UN has said that about 10.8 million people in Syria need help, of which 4.7 million are in hard-to-reach areas.