Turkish aid agency sends humanitarian aid to Syria

KONYA, Turkey

A Turkish aid agency delivered 39,000 packs of humanitarian aid to Syrians, an official said Thursday.

“Within the scope of holy month of Ramadan, we sent 39,000 iftar [fast-breaking] packs to be delivered to various regions of Syria,” Hasan Huseyin Uysal, who heads the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) in Turkey’s central Konya province said in a statement.

The packs included clothes, baby food and flour, Uysal said.

“We want the refugees who have been delivered aid to break their fasts and to meet the eid ul-fitr in a peaceful way,” Uysal said of the festival that concludes the holy month of Ramadan.

Fasting dawn to dusk during Ramadan is a pillar of Islam.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

* Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur