Residents of the besieged Syrian city of Madaya have expelled the head of the rebel military council in the city from his place of residence after he tried to direct aid shipments into warehouses, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting, citing several sources in the city.
The residents demanded that the aid be given to them directly, SOHR says.
The Red Cross, Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN sent an aid convoy to Madaya today.
SOHR adds:
Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the distribution will as following:
after the entry of the aid they will be distributed to warehouses in Madaya, then the shares will be delivered to each family according to the list of the relief office, each share will be handed to the head of the household, while the surplus of the aid will be distributed after the completion of the first round of distribution in Madaya.
This just in from AFP regarding the planned Syrian peace talks:
Humanitarian aid trucks have now entered the Syrian town of Madaya near the Lebanese border, Reuters is reporting, citing a local witness.
Red Crescent and U.N. vehicles drove into Madaya hours after departing from Damascus, while a separate convoy was set to enter two villages in the northwest of Syria under the deal.
The first three trucks of aid have entered Madaya, the BBC's Kriszta Satori tweets.
AFP has more on the reports that the coordinator of the Syrian opposition has said that there will be no talks with the Syrian government while "foreign forces" are bombing the country.
"We cannot negotiate with the regime while there are foreign forces bombing the Syrian people," [Riad] Hijab said after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.
This just in from AFP.
Reuters has more on the reports that gunmen have killed people in a Baghdadi shopping mall.
Police sources said that four gunmen charged into the Jawaher mall in the predominately Shi'ite district of Baghdad Jadida, after a car bomb exploded outside, killing seven people were killed and injuring 27 more.
It is not clear if the gunmen have taken hostages of if they have killed anyone inside the mall. The sources said that the gunmen may have been wearing suicide vests.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Some reports are saying that the gunmen who stormed a mall in a Shi'ite district of Eastern Baghdad have taken hostages, but that seems to be unconfirmed.