美国有线新闻 CNN 叙利亚军方宣布停火结束 联合国救援车队遭袭

 

We're getting started in the Middle East today with an update on what appears to be a crumbling¹ situation in the nation of Syria.

"Just when we think it cannot get any worse, the power of depravity sinks lower." That's a quote from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He's referring to the apparent bombing of the United Nations' aid convoy², a group of vehicles that was reportedly trying to unload aid supplies in a town west of the Syria city of Aleppo.

The U.N. says 18 of the 31 trucks in the convoy were hit Monday night. A warehouse³ belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was also struck.

Twenty people were reportedly killed in the bombing.

No one has claimed responsibility for it and it's not clear yet whether the trucks and warehouse were shelled or hit by an airstrike. The bombing happened shortly after Syrian government officials declared that a ceasefire that took effect last week had ended.

The attack forced the United Nations to suspend sending aid convoys⁴ into the area around Aleppo, and that's a place that concerned humanitarian⁵ workers for months because an estimated 250,000 civilians⁶ are there in need of food, medicine and water. The dangers of reaching them mirror the complications of Syria's civil war.

CLARISSA WARD⁷, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you take a look at a map, you get a much greater idea of the complexity⁸ of the situation. This is where that aid is needed the most, in eastern Aleppo.

This part of the city is controlled by the rebels. It's home to roughly 300,000 civilians and it's where the most intensive bombardment has been happening.

For months, it has been besieged⁹ by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. You can see regime territory is all of this area marked in red, entirely¹⁰ surrounding eastern Aleppo. That means there's no food or medical aid getting in.

When we visited Syria earlier this year, there was still one road into eastern Aleppo that was under the control of the rebels, Castello Road. It was very dangerous to travel because it's flanked by the Syrian army in red and by Kurdish fighters which you can see just there in blue.

Now, Castello Road is under the control of the regime. And this is the road that the aid trucks are hoping to take in. Several weeks ago, rebel forces were able to clear a small, shaky corridor down in this area called Ramouseh, but after heavy fighting, that area is now back under regime control, too.

So, in order to get aid trucks from the Turkish border into the hardest hit areas, they will need to go through regime, and rebel and Kurdish held areas. And negotiating that kind of access takes time.

1 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

2 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

3 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

4 convoys   

n.（有护航的）船队( convoy的名词复数 )；车队；护航（队）；护送队

参考例句：

• Truck convoys often stop over for lunch here. 车队经常在这里停下来吃午饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A UN official said aid programs will be suspended until there's adequate protection for relief convoys. 一名联合国官员说将会暂停援助项目，直到援助车队能够得到充分的保护为止。 来自辞典例句

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

7 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

8 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

9 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

10 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。