The UN has confirmed that the first large shipments of aid have made it through to five besieged towns in Syria.<br /><br /> Aid convoys with food and medical supplies for almost 100,000 people left the capital Damascus on Wednesday.<br /><br /> The Syrian government has approved access to seven besieged areas, the United Nations said after crisis talks in Damascus on Tuesday, a week ahead of a planned resumption of peace talks between Syria’s warring parties.<br /><br /> The aid convoys headed to Madaya, Zabadani and Mouadamiya al-Sham near Damascus, and to the villages of al-Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province in the northwest, five of the locations named by the United Nations, a spokesman for the Red Crescent said.<br /><br /> But the UN wants more access, estimating it needs to help nearly half a million people in around 15 besieged areas of Syria, and over four and a half million people in hard-to-reach areas.<br /><br /> One convoy reached Madaya, near the border with Lebanon, but not before dozens starved to death after months o
