LATAKIA (Sputnik) – The cargo was parachuted by Syrian aviation on Wednesday night from a height of 4,000 meters (over 13,000 feet) to the government-controlled areas of the seventh largest city in Syria.
The total weight of the humanitarian cargo was over 50 metric tons.
"In Russia, cargo is dropped from a height of 600 to 1,000 meters, but this was generally not the case here. The choice of a height of 4 kilometers was due to the extremists possessing air defense systems, as well as a range of other factors," a representative of Russian air forces in Syria told journalists.
Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups, such as ISIL, also known as Daesh, which is banned in a range of countries, including Russia.
According to Siege Watch, a joint initiative of the Netherlands-based aid group PAX and the Washington-based Syria Institute, there are well over 1,000,000 Syrians under siege in various locations in the country, including Deir ez-Zor.
So far, over 200 metric tons of Russian-Syrian humanitarian cargo have been delivered to Deir ez-Zor by air.
Russia has been launching airstrikes against Daesh targets in Syria at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad since late September 2015.
