Humanitarian efforts make headway in Syria amid intense clashes

Clashes between the Syrian troops and the Islamic State (IS) militants raged Tuesday in the province of al-Hasakah amid renewed humanitarian efforts to deliver medical aid to afflicted Syrian areas, reports said.

The Syrian troops targeted the IS positions in the towns of Shbaib and Bab al-Khair in the southern countryside of al-Hasakah, killing over 50 of their fighters, according to the state news agency SANA.

The Syrian troops also foiled the IS attack against the area of Tal Ghasal in the countryside of al-Hasakah, said SANA.

Meanwhile, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said intense clashes raged between the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG) and the IS in the area of Abu Qasaiyeb at the outskirts of the town of Tal Hamis in the predominantly Kurdish city of al-Qamishli in al-Hasakah.

Clashes also erupted between the IS and the Syrian National Defense Forces, a pro-government militia, in the area of Abu Qasayeb in al-Qamishli amid a progress by the IS in that area despite heavy shelling by the government troops, according to the UK-based watchdog group.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on ground, said tens of the IS fighters entered the eastern countryside of al-Hasakah from neighboring Iraq due to the intensity of the battles on the Iraqi side.

Aside from the ongoing clashes in the war-torn country, humanitarian workers said there was a progress in delivering medical aid to several Syrian provinces recently.

SANA on Tuesday cited the World Health Organization (WHO) as stating that "remarkable progress" has been witnessed recently regarding the delivery of medical assistance in the Syrian provinces.

WHO representative in Syria Elizabeth Hoff was cited by SANA as saying that the recent progress has led to improving the health situation and reducing morbidity and mortality rates in the country.

Hoff confirmed that her organization had already delivered over 210 shipments of medical supplies to Syrian provinces, including hardest-hit and difficult-to-reach areas, according to SANA.

She noted that the aid delivery was made possible due to the constant communication with several Syrian ministries, highlighting the importance of keeping this communication.

The crisis in Syria, Hoff stressed, is at the heart of the WHO' s priorities, pointing out that the organization has been working with transparency and accuracy as far as determining the mostly affected areas and segments is concerned.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad stressed Tuesday that his government had exerted big efforts to protect the children, who are the most affected among the victims of the Syrian war.

"Since the beginning of the crisis, Syria has taken into consideration the duty of protecting its citizens, particularly the children, allocating human resources in this context, carrying out vaccination campaigns and rehabilitating the damaged schools to receive nearly 4.4 million students," he said during a meeting on children's rights held in Damascus.

Chairwoman of the UNICEF affirmed that the Syrian government had taken tangible steps to respond to children needs.

Over 190,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced inside and outside the country as a result of the Syria crisis, which has become more complicated when radical groups capitalized on the chaotic situation to achieve territorial gains.

Humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm about the repercussions of the prolonged crisis on the well-being of the Syrian kids.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the number of children killed in the conflict had risen to 9,428 by late August 2014.