Aid convoy for besieged Syrian village delayed

An aid convoy which was due to reach a besieged Syrian village yesterday has been delayed by last-minute hitches.

The World Food Programme (WFP) had hoped to take a first shipment of food and medicine to the 40,000 people trapped in Madaya, a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border.

People there are reported to have been starving to death, and eating pets and grass to survive.

The convoy, with its month of supplies, is now due to arrive today.

It is not clear what caused the delay but the BBC's correspondent in Beirut says negotiating access across battlefronts in a siege situation has always been a tricky business.

It involves agreement at the top political level on both sides of the conflict, as well as individual fighters on the ground.

A similar operation for two government-held villages in the north - Kefraya and Foah - is also due today.

Up to 4.5 million people in Syria live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged locations who do not have access to life-saving aid

Madaya has been besieged since early July by government forces and their allies in Lebanon's Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement.

The situation in Foah and Kefraya, under siege from rebels, is also reported to be worsening, with an estimated 30,000 people trapped.

Meanwhile the UN's mediator in the Syrian conflict, Staffan de Mistura, is in Damascus trying to lay the groundwork for peace talks planned later this month.

Opposition leaders have made the lifting of sieges a condition of taking part in the talks.

In a separate development Russian air strikes in support of government forces are reported in north-western Idlib province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said there were heavy casualties when they hit a prison complex run by al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, on Saturday.

At least 57 people - civilians, militants and detainees - were killed and 30 others were wounded, it said.