First airdrop of 21 tons of humanitarian aid delivered to Syria's Deir al-Zor, UN aid chief says

The United Nations on Wednesday carried out its first humanitarian airdrop in Syria to help civilians besieged by Daesh, the UN aid chief said.

"Earlier this morning, a WFP plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into Deir Ezzor," Stephen O'Brien told the UN Security Council.

He says initial reports from Syrian Arab Red Crescent teams on the ground say the pallets landed in the target area.

O'Brien says the U.N. and its partners have reached 110,000 people in besieged areas and have approval to reach a further 230,000 people, including through air drops in Deir el-Zour.

But he says the U.N. is still waiting for approval to reach 170,000 additional people in besieged areas and "we expect those approvals to happen immediately."