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Food distribution under way for 60,000 in Aleppo - Red Cross


    GENEVA (Reuters) - The Red Cross has begun a "major distribution" of emergency food rations on both sides of the front lines in the Syrian city of Aleppo, its first since October, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Wednesday.

    The Syrian government finally gave approval this week for the plan, submitted in January, and the operation to feed 60,000 people in the divided northern city is being carried out with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, ICRC President Peter Maurer said.

    "We have a major food distribution ongoing in Aleppo. It is the first time in months on that scale," Maurer told Reuters in Geneva. "It is on both sides of the front line."

    (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)