HATAY, Turkey

The UN on Thursday dispatched a total of 51 truckloads of humanitarian aid to Idlib, a northwestern Syrian city where millions of people are in desperate need of assistance.

Trucks entered the city through the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Hatay province of Turkey bordering Idlib.

The humanitarian aid items are going to be distributed to the needy people struggling to live in Idlib and nearby rural areas.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.

Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone laid out in a deal between Turkey and Russia in late 2018. The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the zone.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-weary country.

* Writing by Ali Murat Alhas