HAMA (Sputnik) — Officials from Russia’s Syria-based reconciliation center have brought humanitarian aid to the village of Maardas, just weeks after it repelled an Islamist offensive, a Russian officer told Sputnik on Friday.
"We have delivered 800 food rations. This food assistance [program] was launched because this place has recently seen fighting," Alexander Vorontsov said.
The village in the central Hama province has changed hands several timed during the six-year Syrian war. The military official said it had been ravaged by tank, artillery and suicide truck attack by the Islamic State terror group (IS, outlawed in Russia).
The local population shrunk after around a hundred died in fighting and currently stands at 500 households. Some 200 have been injured, many of them children. Russian army medics have been a regular part of the reconciliation center’s missions to Syrian towns and are providing assistance to people in Maardas.
