The truce in Syria's battleground city Aleppo expired Thursday with no new last-minute extension, as a besieged town near the capital prepared to receive its first humanitarian aid in four years. Local sources report that residents in the war-torn city are preparing to flee to the northern part of the country or across the border to Turkey.
World powers are to meet in Vienna next week to try to push faltering peace talks to end the conflict.
Regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on Aleppo's opposition-held eastern districts with no reports of casualties following overnight airstrikes that killed two fighters. In the Damascus region, aid agencies were to deliver relief supplies to the opposition-held town of Daraya on Thursday, the first since 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
"This is the first ever humanitarian convoy to this town in the suburbs of Damascus since the beginning of the siege in November 2012," ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek said.
Five trucks organized by the ICRC, the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were to deliver baby formula and medical and school supplies. The United Nations says more than 486,000 people are living under siege in Syria, more than half of them in areas besieged by the regime.
A temporary truce in Aleppo expired on Wednesday night after it had been extended twice through 11th-hour diplomatic intervention by Moscow and Washington.
The former economic hub has been divided between the regime-held west and opposition-controlled east since 2012 and has been the scene of some of the worst fighting since 2011.
The truce brokered by Russia and the United States came into force after a spike in violence in the northern city last month that killed more than 300 civilians.
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