IHH and Qataris send 27 aid trucks to Syria

ANKARA

Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation has said it will help deliver more than 30,000 food packages to over 15,000 families in Syria.

In cooperation with the Qatar Charity association, 27 trucks set off from Turkey on Saturday.

Bulent Yildirim, head of IHH, said that the overall amount of aid going to Syria has fallen because the war there is becoming more severe.

He warned that the refugee crisis is worsening and that thousands of people are heading to the country’s borders in an attempt to save their lives from the attacks by the Syrian regime.

Yildirim said that this has forced IHH to initiate a new aid campaign.

“By the end of this year we hopefully will send 3,000 more aid trucks to Syria,” Yildirim said.

Syria has been gripped by violence since the Bashar al-Assad regime launched a crackdown in response to anti-government protests in March 2011, triggering a civil war in which more than 211,000 people have died.

Millions have been forced to flee their homes and live in camps in Syria and other neighboring countries, including Turkey.