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Assad, allies aim to seize all Aleppo before Trump takes power

A Syrian government soldier gestures a v-sign under the Syrian national flag near a general view of eastern Aleppo after they took control of al-Sakhour neigbourhood in Aleppo, Syria

By Laila Bassam and Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army and its allies aim to seize all eastern Aleppo from rebels by the time U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, sticking by a Russian-backed timeline for the operation after big gains in recent days, a senior official in the military alliance fighting in support of Damascus said.

The official who declined to be identified in order to speak freely indicated however that the next phase of the Aleppo campaign could be more difficult as the army and its allies seek to capture more densely populated areas of the city.

The rebels have lost more than a third of the area they held in eastern Aleppo in the last few days of a government assault that has killed hundreds of people and uprooted thousands more. For the rebels, it is one of the gravest moments of the war.

Rebels meanwhile fought fiercely to stop government forces advancing deeper into the opposition-held enclave on Tuesday, confronting pro-Assad militias who sought to move into the area from the southeast, a rebel official said.

The attack on eastern Aleppo threatens to snuff out the most important urban center of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, who has been firmly on the offensive for more than a year thanks to Russian and Iranian military support.

Capturing rebel-held eastern Aleppo would be the biggest victory to date for Assad in the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people since it arose out of protests against his rule nearly six years ago.

As Russia and Iran have stuck steadfastly by Assad, the rebels say their foreign backers including the United States have left them to their fate in their besieged enclave of eastern Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the civil war.

Syrian government soldiers walk near a general view of eastern Aleppo after they took control of al-Sakhour neigbourhood in Aleppo, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on November 28, 2016. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

Government forces backed by Shi’ite militias from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq punched into the rebel-held area from the northeast last week. The senior, pro-Assad official said the rebel lines had collapsed more quickly than expected.

“The Russians want to complete the operation before Trump takes power,” said the official, repeating a previous timetable which pro-Damascus sources had said was drawn up to mitigate the risks of any shift in U.S. policy towards the war in Syria.

Trump has indicated that he may abandon support for Syrian rebels who have received military aid from states including the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and could even cooperate with Russia against Islamic State in the country.

He will be inaugurated as president on January 20.

The United States has offered aid including military support to some rebel groups under President Barack Obama, though the rebels have always said this backing has fallen well short of what they need against better armed government forces.

THE WEST “CAN’T DO ANYTHING”

The rebel official said the outgoing U.S. administration was paying little attention to Syria. Assad and his allies were “trying to exploit the current circumstances, unfortunately, and the Western states can’t do anything”, he said.

France, another backer of the opposition, called for an immediate U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss Aleppo.

“More than ever before, we need to urgently put in place means to end the hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid to get through unhindered,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.

Russia has consistently blocked attempts by Western states to take action in the Security Council against Damascus.

A bomb hangs on a parachute while falling over the rebel-held besieged al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Accounts from eastern Aleppo, where the United Nations says at least 250,000 civilians are trapped with no access to the outside world, point to a dire humanitarian situation. People have been forced to scavenge in the garbage for food as aid supplies have run out, and all the hospitals in eastern Aleppo have been repeatedly bombed.

The civil defense rescue service that operates in eastern Aleppo said on Monday it had nearly run out fuel to power the equipment it has been using to pull people from the rubble of bombed-out buildings.

Pummeled by air strikes, artillery and ground attacks, the rebels were forced on Monday to withdraw to more defensible lines along a highway that runs through Aleppo, hoping that it would be harder for the government side to make further gains.

The rebel official with one of the main Aleppo rebel groups said the opposition fighters had managed to stabilize new frontlines, but were fighting to stop pro-government militias that sought to advance from the south.

FIERCE BATTLES

“There is no progress but the bombardment and battles remain fierce, particularly in Aziza” in southeastern Aleppo, said the official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group, which fights under the Free Syrian Army banner. “Yesterday evening there was a big mobilization by Iranian militias in Aziza,” the official added.

The government and its allies gradually besieged the rebel-held sector of Aleppo this year before abandoning a ceasefire to launch a fierce assault in September.

The latest fighting has forced thousands to flee. Some have crossed the frontline to government-held areas, others have sought refuge in a Kurdish-controlled part of the city, and many more have fled deeper into the remaining rebel-held area.

Air strikes on Bab al-Nairab, a district in the rebel-held area, killed at least 10 people and left dozens more wounded or missing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the civil defense rescue service said. The Syrian military could not be reached for comment.

The civil defense said government planes struck as people were trying to flee the neighborhood on foot, killing 25.

The United Nations humanitarian chief and relief coordinator said up to 16,000 people had been displaced in eastern Aleppo.

The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he could not say how long eastern Aleppo would hold out.

“Clearly, I cannot deny – this is a military acceleration and I can’t tell you how long eastern Aleppo will last,” he told the European Parliament.

Russia said that the army’s breakthrough in Aleppo had dramatically altered the situation on the ground, allowing more than 80,000 civilians to access humanitarian aid after years of what it described as being used by militants as human shields.

“During the last 24 hours, thanks to very well-prepared and careful actions, Syrian soldiers were able to radically change the situation,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

“Practically half of the territory occupied by rebels in recent years in the eastern part of Aleppo has been completely liberated.”

A medic in eastern Aleppo who gave his name as Abu al-Abbas said however there was “intense fear of collective annihilation”.

“This week I’ve changed locations three times,” he added, speaking on Monday using a social networking site. “In the shelter, we had dead people who we couldn’t take out because the bombardment was so intense,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Angus McDowall in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Andrew Osborn and Katya Golubkova in Moscow, John Irish in Paris, Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles in Geneva; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Peter Graff)

Week of renewed Aleppo strikes kills 141 in east, 16 in west

People walk near rubble of damaged buildings, in the rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria

BEIRUT, Nov 22 (Reuters) – At least 141 civilians, including 18 children, have been killed in a week of renewed bombardment on the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo which has devastated its hospitals, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The Britain-based war monitor said it had documented hundreds of injuries as a result of Russian and Syrian airstrikes and shelling by government forces and its allies on the besieged eastern half of the divided city.

The assault began last Tuesday after a weeks-long pause in airstrikes and shelling inside east Aleppo, although battles and air strikes did continue along the city’s front lines and in the surrounding countryside.

The monitor said there were another 87 deaths of rebel fighters and people of unknown identity in the eastern sector.

The Observatory also documented 16 civilian deaths, including 10 children, and dozens of injuries as a result of rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo.

Airstrikes and shelling of east Aleppo last week knocked all the main hospitals in that part of the city out of service, the local health authority and international humanitarian agencies said.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Obama, Putin talk about Syria and Ukraine in quick summit meet

LIMA (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke for around four minutes on Sunday at the APEC summit about Syria and Ukraine, in what is likely to be their last in-person meeting before Obama leaves office.

The two men met at the start of the summit meeting in Lima, Peru’s capital. They exchanged pleasantries and remained standing as they spoke.

Obama later said at a news conference he told Putin the U.S. is deeply concerned about bloodshed and chaos in Syria “sown by constant bombing attacks” by the Syrian and Russian militaries, and that a ceasefire and political transition were needed.

“As usual I was candid and courteous but very clear about the strong differences we have on policy,” Obama said.

Putin said at a separate news conference he thanked Obama during Sunday’s meeting in Lima “for the years of joint work”.

“I told him that we would be happy to see him (Obama) in Russia anytime if he wants, can and has desire”, Putin said.

Obama and Putin have had a challenging relationship. The U.S. president said last week he had warned Putin about consequences for cyber attacks attributed to Moscow that were seen as trying to influence the U.S. election.

Obama said he also urged President Putin to help implement the Minsk peace agreement by working with France, Germany, Ukraine and the United States to halt the conflict in Donbass region of Ukraine.

During his race for the White House, Republican President-elect Donald Trump praised Putin. Putin said on Sunday that Trump had confirmed to him that he was willing to mend ties.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, additional reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Caroline Stauffer and Mitra Taj; Editing by Alan Crosby and Simon Cameron-Moore)

U.N. says Syria’s Aleppo faces ‘bleak moment’, all aid convoys blocked

A girl makes her way through the debris of a damaged site that was hit yesterday by airstrikes in the rebel held al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria

By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – Around 250,000 civilians in Syria’s besieged eastern Aleppo have run out of aid supplies and none of the warring sides have agreed safe passage for a relief convoy, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said on Friday.

Air strikes and shelling in the rebel-held east of Syria’s largest city has killed dozens this week, a monitoring group says. The bombardment resumed on Tuesday after a four-week pause, part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, against insurgents.

U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said civilians trapped by the siege were out of food and medical stocks and bracing themselves for an increasingly fierce attack.

“My understanding is that virtually all warehouses are now empty and tens of thousands of families are running out of food and all other supplies,” Egeland told Reuters. “So this is a very bleak moment, and we are not talking about a tsunami here, we are talking about a manmade catastrophe from A to Z.”

The United Nations has proposed a humanitarian relief plan, with medical workers, medical supplies and food going into eastern Aleppo and evacuations of the sick and wounded.

The rebels had given positive signals, Egeland said, but he could not understand why they could not simply state their approval and pledge to guarantee the security of U.N. humanitarian operations.

“Earlier on their side they were quarrelling over the correct access road and many of the technical and logistical elements of both the 48-hour convoy and the medical evacuations. It’s not really rational,” he said.

Russia had said it is positive in general about the plan but it has not given an official green light, he said. At the same time, Egeland said, Moscow had stepped up its air campaign in support of Syrian and allied ground forces.

The United Nations had hoped to send convoys with aid for 1 million Syrians in besieged or hard-to-reach areas this month, but so far not one has reached its destination.

“The needs are exploding and a killer winter is coming to the exhausted and vulnerable Syrian civilians. We have the trucks, we have relief workers that are willing to go, even though it’s dangerous, and we have very concrete plans,” Egeland said, and he was angry and frustrated at the “outrageous” situation.

He blamed arbitrary bureaucracy and the insistence of combatants that the convoys use roads known to be insecure or mined. Although the Syrian government was doing most of the besieging and was responsible for most of the obstacles, Egeland said rebel groups also often did little or nothing to help.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Philippines’ Duterte says may follow Russia’s withdrawal from ‘useless’ ICC

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 80th National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) founding anniversary at the NBI headquarters in metro Ma

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he might follow Russia and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), citing criticism from Western nations for a rash of killings unleashed by his war on drugs.

Duterte described the ICC as “useless” and expressed frustration about the West’s allegations of extrajudicial killings and its failure to understand his crackdown on narcotics. He also appeared to blame the United Nations for failing to prevent wars all over the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order removing Russia’s signature from the founding treaty of the ICC on Wednesday, and Duterte said he might consider doing the same.

“They are useless, those in the international criminal (court). They (Russia) withdrew. I might follow. Why? Only the small ones like us are battered,” Duterte said before his departure for Lima to attend an Asia-Pacific summit.

Duterte is seeking a meeting with Putin in Lima this weekend, which comes as he pursues an independent foreign policy aimed at weaning the Philippines off dependence on longtime ally the United States. He has frequently praised Russia and China.

Duterte, known for his frank statements, speculated that Russia’s ICC move might be because of its air strikes in Syria.

“What could be the reason? I really would not know,” he said. “Maybe to protect what they are doing in Syria, the incessant bombing and the killing of civilians.”

Russia is under international pressure over the Syria air strikes, with some human rights activists and U.S. officials accusing it of bombing civilians and civilian targets. Russia has denied those allegations.

The ICC, which the Philippines became a member of in 2011, has received an ear-bashing from the outspoken Philippine leader, like all those who have showed concern about his war on drugs and the more than 2,400 people killed.

An ICC prosecutor last month said the Hague-based tribunal may have jurisdiction to prosecute the perpetrators of the killings.

Duterte said he was annoyed about the criticism he had received and that “nobody was listening” to his reasons for having the crackdown, including U.S. President Barack Obama.

He took aim at U.S. foreign policy and the United Nations and said he would be happier if China and Russia called the shots.

“You know, if China and Russia would decide to create a new order, I will be the first to join,” he said.

“The killings is endless,” he said, referring to conflicts in the past and current. “The amount is splattering. That is our lesson. Just because it is America, it does not mean that it is good.”

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Martin Petty)

Strikes on rebel-held east Aleppo kill 25

Children collect firewood amid damage and debris at a site hit yesterday by airstrikes in the rebel held al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Air strikes and shelling killed at least 25 people in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Thursday on the third day of renewed bombing, a monitoring group said, and the mayor of the besieged sector warned of a total lack of fuel and food as winter encroached.

The bombardment of eastern Aleppo restarted on Tuesday after a weeks-long pause, part of a wider military escalation by the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, against insurgents.

Moscow is using an aircraft carrier and missiles fired from another warship against targets around Syria but says it is not bombing Aleppo. Syria’s government said on Tuesday it was striking what it called “terrorist strongholds” in the city.

The United Nations says 250,000 civilians remain in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled neighborhoods, effectively under siege since the army, aided by Iranian-backed militias and Russian jets, cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.

Frequent air strikes on hospitals, and the disruption and pollution of water supplies, have worsened the humanitarian crisis. Medicines, food and fuel are all severely depleted.

“There is only enough to keep the bakeries going to give people at least some bread. People are only getting about 15 percent of what they need,” Brita Hagi Hassan, president of the city council for opposition-held Aleppo, told Reuters.

Hassan is outside eastern Aleppo and cannot return because of the siege but he is still running the council remotely, he said.

International charity Oxfam said it had moved a large electricity generator to the Suleiman al-Halabi water station that is located on the frontline between east and west Aleppo and still serves both sides of the city under an agreement.

It said all other aid to the besieged area remains cut off.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organization that monitors the war, said shelling and air strikes from helicopters and jets hit the eastern half of the city, causing severe damage. Air strikes also hit rebel-held areas west and south of Aleppo.

Shelling of government-held western Aleppo by rebels during a failed counter-attack they staged earlier this month killed dozens of people, the United Nations said.

Syria’s civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad against mainly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him. It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced around half the country’s pre-war population since it began in 2011.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Angus McDowall and Mark Trevelyan)

Food production in Syria hits all time low

Farmers harvest wheat in a field at night, fearing shelling in daylight, in the rebel held besieged town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria early morning

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Food production has dropped to an all-time low in Syria where millions of hungry civilians are struggling through their sixth winter in a war zone, U.N. agencies said on Tuesday.

Many farmers have had to abandon their land, unable to afford the soaring cost of seeds, fertilisers and tractor fuel, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme said.

Wheat output – vital for making flat loaves of bread which are a staple of the Syrian diet – dropped from an average 3.4 million metric tonnes harvested before the war began in 2011 to 1.5 million this year, they said in a joint report.

“There is an estimated shortfall of about 838,000 tonnes in the country’s national wheat requirement of 3.854 million tonnes taking into account commercial imports,” it said.

The area planted for cereals in the 2015-16 cropping season is the “smallest ever”, they added. Field visits and surveys showed higher than average production of barley, which some farmers switched to as the rain-fed crop is more resistant than wheat, and “large patches of cropland affected by drought”.

“Food production in Syria has hit a record low due to fighting and insecurity but also bad weather conditions,” World Food Programme spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a news briefing.

Food shortages are particularly worrying in east Aleppo, the rebel-held part of the city besieged by government forces where the U.N. says 250,000-275,000 civilians still live.

“The last food rations provided by the U.N. have been given out (in east Aleppo). It is very hard to say how people will be coping there. Of course it is a very different situation than in the capital where food is readily available at the markets,” Luescher said.

Reuters reported last month that Syria’s state grain buying agency Hoboob struck a deal to purchase one million tonnes of wheat from political ally Russia, covering the needs of government-controlled areas for a year.

Before the war, Syria was an exporter of livestock. “Now herds and flocks have shrunk significantly, there are 30 percent fewer cattle, 40 percent fewer sheep and goats and a staggering 60 percent less poultry which of course is the most affordable source of animal protein,” Luescher said.

More than 7 million people in Syria are classified as “food insecure”, meaning they are not always sure where their next meal is coming from, she said, adding: “Eighty percent of the households across Syria struggle with a lack of food or lack of money to buy food.”

The World Food Programme is distributing rations to more than 4 million people in Syria each month.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Richard Balmforth)

Yemen’s suspected cholera cases double to 4,000 plus

A girl lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center in Sanaa, Yemen,

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemen is at risk of a significant cholera outbreak with the number of suspected cases doubling within 12 days to over 4,000, the World Health Organization said.

The outbreak in a country ravaged by a 20-month war that has killed thousands was declared by Yemen’s Health Ministry on Oct. 6. By Nov. 1 there were 2,070 suspected cases, rising to 4,119 by Sunday.

“The numbers of cholera cases in Yemen continue to increase, sparking concerns of a significant outbreak,” the WHO said in a report on Monday.

Cases confirmed as cholera by laboratory testing rose to 86 from 71 on Nov. 1. Eight people have died in the outbreak, as well as 56 from acute diarrhoea.

Yemen is already beset by humanitarian problems arising from the war between a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The war has destroyed much of Yemen’s infrastructure, killed more than 10,000 people and displaced millions. The United Nations says only 45 percent of health facilities are functional and two-thirds of the population has no access to safe drinking water or sanitation.

The WHO said the largest cholera caseload was in the governorates of Taiz and of Aden, the site of the government’s temporary capital.

But deaths due to cholera have also been confirmed in Amran, Sanaa, Hajjah and Ibb, and there are 29 “hot” districts in the country, with 11 governorates affected so far, the report said.

Although most sufferers have no symptoms or mild symptoms that can be treated with oral rehydration solution, in more severe cases the disease can kill within hours if not treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics.

The U.N. estimates the cholera caseload in Yemen could end up as high as 76,000 across 15 governorates.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by John Stonestreet)

Russian hackers accused of post-election attacks on U.S. think tanks

By Jim Finkle and Dustin Volz

(Reuters) – A Russian hacking group began attacking U.S.-based policy think tanks within hours of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, according to cyber experts who suspect Moscow is seeking information on the incoming administration.

Three cyber security firms told Reuters that are tracking a spear-phishing campaign by a Russian-government linked group known as Cozy Bear, which is widely suspected of hacking the Democratic Party ahead of the election.

“Probably now they are trying to rush to gain access to certain targets where they can get a better understanding on what is going on in Washington after the election and during the transition period,” said Jaime Blasco, chief scientist with cyber security firm AlienVault.

Targets included the Council for Foreign Relations, said Adam Segal, a security expert with the think tank. His colleagues include former U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV and former Reagan administration State Department official Elliott Abrams.

Representatives with the Russian Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. Moscow has strongly denied that it was behind the hacks.

Spear-phishing campaigns use malware-tainted emails to infect computers of carefully selected staff at target organizations. They typically appear to be from people whom the victims know and on subjects of interest to them.

Some of the emails appeared to be from Harvard University under the subject line, “Why American Elections are flawed,” according to Washington-based cyber security firm Volexity.

The attacks began as the Obama administration was weighing if and how it might respond in its final two months to a series of high-profile hacks on Democratic Party organizations that U.S. intelligence officials have publicly blamed on Moscow.

A former senior Obama administration official said on Thursday that the White House had decided to take action against Russia after the election but no decision had been made on exactly how to respond.

Options included U.S. prosecutors indicting Russians believed to be behind the attacks, applying new economic sanctions against Moscow and the United States launching a retaliatory cyber attack against Russia, said the former official who asked not to be named.

White House officials feared that retaliating before the election could have led Russia to launch a major cyber attack on the United States that would have disrupted the banking system, power grid or internet service. But they said administration officials had decided that the United States needed to show after the election that it would respond to state-sponsored cyber attacks, said the former official.

Trump has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the attacks. He has yet to fill key national security posts, which makes it difficult to assess how his administration might handle the issue.

Harvard’s chief information security officer, Christian Hamer, warned staff about the attacks on Thursday afternoon, saying that federal law enforcement was investigating.

He said some of the emails used in the campaign appeared as if they were sent from members of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, using the school’s branding.

An FBI representative declined comment.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Dustin Volz in Washington. Additional reporting by David Rohde in New York and Steve Holland in Washington.; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

U.N. says rations run out in east Aleppo, hopes for aid deal

People walk past rubble of damaged buildings in a rebel-held besieged area in Aleppo, Syria

By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – Aid workers in eastern Aleppo were distributing the last available food rations on Thursday as the quarter of a million people besieged in the Syrian city entered what is expected to be a cruel winter, U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said.

Speaking in Geneva, Egeland said he was hopeful of a deal on a four-part humanitarian plan the United Nations sent to all parties to the conflict several days ago. The plan covers delivery of food and medical supplies, medical evacuations and access for health workers.

“I do believe we will be able to avert mass hunger this winter,” Egeland told reporters in Geneva, noting that east Aleppo last received relief supplies in early July.

“I don’t think anybody wants a quarter of a million people to be starving in east Aleppo,” he said.

Some families in the rebel-held area have not had food distributions for several weeks and food prices are skyrocketing, he said. Around 300 sick and wounded require medical evacuation, he added.

Syria’s government rejected a U.N. request to send aid to east Aleppo during November, but Egeland said he was confident that Damascus would give its permission if the new U.N. humanitarian initiative was accepted by all sides. He said he also had the clear impression that Russia would continue its pause in air strikes over the northern city.

Russia’s military will continue arranging ceasefires, or so-called “humanitarian pauses” in Syria, Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said a survey based on nearly 400 interviews in eastern Aleppo between Oct 24 and Oct 26 found 44 percent of respondents wanted to leave if a secure exit route was available, while 40 percent wanted to stay.

“Those who wish to stay either didn’t know of any safe place to go, wanted to remain with family members, couldn’t afford the cost of moving, or feared they would not be able to return to their homes,” UNHCR said in a report.

Egeland, asked about expectations from the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, said: “Syria is the worst war, the worst humanitarian crisis, the worst displacement crisis, the worst refugee crisis in a generation. So we expect there to be continued, uninterrupted U.S. help and engagement in the coming months.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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