Over the course of Syria’s long war, a remote desert camp for thousands of displaced people grew in the shadow of an American military base, just out of reach of Syrian government forces.
The Rukban camp, a few miles from the United States base at al-Tanf in southeastern Syria, ended up almost cut off from aid largely because of closed borders and a Syrian government policy to block almost all relief efforts for areas outside its control.
One Syrian-American aid group worked for years to find a way to ease their plight.
In recent days, the group has sent a first wave of critically needed supplies with the help of an obscure United States military provision known as the Denton Program.
It lets American aid groups use available space on U.S. military cargo planes to transport humanitarian goods such as food and medical supplies to approved countries.
Organizations:
United, Denton
Locations:
American, United States, Syria