BAGHDAD — Severe winter weather delayed the start of the first United Nations airlift of aid items from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region to neighboring Syria, a spokesman said on Thursday. “It appears... the weather in Qamishli has delayed the start of the airlift, as well as prevailing conditions across the region,” UN refugee agency (UNHCR) regional spokesman Peter Kessler told AFP, referring to the city in northeast Syria to which aid supplies are to be flown. “When it will start is difficult to say – I think the authorities in Qamishli are going to check conditions at the airfield on Friday; they announced yesterday a 48-hour delay,” he said. UNHCR plans to fly some 40 metric ton of aid into the area, which has become increasingly dangerous to reach, providing “core relief items for 10,000 families, or about 50-60,000 people,” Kessler said this week. – AFP