Lebanon secures aid to village trapped in Syria war

Lebanese security forces Tuesday successfully delivered aid to the remote Lebanese border village of Tfeil which has been cut off from the rest of the country due to the spillover of the Syrian conflict.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said a convoy of Lebanese Red Cross ambulances and humanitarian trucks were granted access to the besieged village as part of an operation that was overseen by Lebanon’s security forces.

The NNA said Lebanese authorities managed to transfer 10 wounded people, nine Syrian and one Lebanese, out of the village.

It also quoted the acting head of the Lebanon’s Higher Relief Council, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kheir, as saying that 40 days of food aid had been delivered to the village.

Last week, local media said roads leading to the eastern village had been closed off by the Syrian army as part of the regime’s offensive in the Qalamun region.

Tfeil hosts thousands of Lebanese citizens and a growing population of Syrian refugees.

Tuesday’s evacuation plan for Tfleil was announced a day earlier by Lebanon’s interior minister, Nuhad Machnouok. During a news conference, Machnouk also said he was coordinating with Hezbollah to evacuate the Syrian families outside the village after efforts to contact Syrian officials “proved futile.”