Two trailer trucks carrying water, diapers, baby food and blankets are expected to reach the Iraqi capital in a week, Osman Atalay, a spokesman for the Human Rights and Freedoms Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) told AFP.

The trucks will go to Baghdad via Syria, Atalay said, adding that the group had decided to avoid the direct crossing from Turkey to northern Iraq because of "security risks" in the Kurdish-held region.

"It is the first time that a Turkish NGO is sending humanitarian aid to Iraq," the spokesman said.

The IHH was founded in 1995 by volunteers who participated in humanitarian work during the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya.

SPACE.WIRE