Turkey blocks aid convoy to besieged Kurdish town in north Syria, NGO and MP says

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish authorities have blocked a convoy carrying aid to Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria encircled by the Syrian army, NGOs and a Turkish MP say.

They say the aid was blocked before it reached the Turkey-Syria border, despite an agreement announced on Friday between the Syrian government and the country’s Kurdish minority to gradually integrate the Kurds’ military and civilian institutions into the state.

Twenty-five trucks containing water, milk, baby formula and blankets collected in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, “were prevented from crossing the border,” says the Diyarbakir Solidarity and Protection Platform, which organized the aid campaign.

“Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable, both from the point of view of humanitarian law and from the point of view of moral responsibility,” says the platform, which brings together several NGOs.

Earlier this week, residents of Kobane told AFP they were running out of food, water and electricity because the city was overwhelmed with people fleeing the advance of the Syrian army.

Kurdish forces accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic.