First UN aid convoy enters Syria's Deir az-Zour in three years

Trucks carrying "life-saving items" like wheat flour, canned foods and nutrition and maternal health items for 15,000 families reached Deir az-Zour on Thursday, UN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

"This is the first UN aid delivered by road to Deir az-Zour since the city was retaken," he told reporters in Geneva.

But although it is the first from the UN itself, the convoy was not the first to reach the city since the siege was broken on September 5, with trucks carrying in food aid from the Syrian Trade Association last week.

However, the UN had carried out 309 successful airdrops of aid during the siege, Laerke said on Friday, while the Syrian government was also able to periodically bring in supplies by helicopter.

On Friday, the UN refugee agency said it had sent in five trucks carrying shelter materials, plastic sheeting and solar lamps for 30,000 people.

Some 100,000 people who were estimated to be trapped in the regime-held Deiz az-Zour area during the siege that began in 2014.

Last week, Syrian state TV announced a three-year IS siege on Deir az-Zour airport was broken by pro-regime forces.

"By breaking the siege on the military airport regime forces have been able to link up all the neighbourhoods they hold in western parts of Deir az-Zour city," the monitoring group said.

IS seized Deir az-Zour and other parts of eastern Syria from rebel and regime forces in 2014.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 when the Baath regime, in power since 1963 and led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded with military force to peaceful protests demanding democratic reforms during the Arab Spring wave of uprisings.