UN airlifts food to cut off families in northeast Syria

BEIRUT – The U.N's World Food Program says it has made its first airlift of humanitarian aid to families cut off from supplies in northeastern Syria.

The WFP says in a statement issued Sunday that the flight carrying 40 tons of food landed the night before in Qamishli airport in Syria's Hassakeh province. The agency estimates that 275,000 people living in many areas of the province have been cut off from food and other supplies for more than six months.

The WFP says it will fly at least 25 rotations between the capital Damascus and Qamishli over the course of a month.

Road access into Hassakeh from inside the country has been blocked by the Islamic State group for more than two years.