Turkish aid group aims to help 2M people in Syria

By Cem Genco

HATAY, Turkey

Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) aims to deliver aid to 2 million Syrians this winter, it said Thursday.

Selim Tosun, media adviser of the foundation’s branch in southern Hatay province, told Anadolu Agency that they had reached out to 1.5 million people in Syria and aimed to increase this number to 2 million this year.

"Bread, blankets, clothes, food, water, stoves and coal are distributed to needy families in Idlib, Hama, Latakia, rural areas of Aleppo and camps on Turkey's border," Tosun said.

He added that the elderly and children are even more vulnerable to the winters.

Turkey hosts more than 3.2 million Syrians, more than any other country in the world.

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

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to UN figures.

Reporing by Cem Genco; Writing by Fatma Bulbul