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THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A convoy containing food, medical items, blankets and other materials makes its way to the towns of Foua and Kfarya in northern Syria, on Monday. ByAlbertAji The Associated Press DAMASCUS, SYRIA Aid convoys delivered long- awaited food, medicine and other supplies to three besieged communi- ties Monday, part of a U.N.- supported operation to help tens of thousands of civilians cut off for months by the war in Syria. Reports of starvation and images of emaciated children have raised global concerns and underscored the urgency for new peace talks that the U.N. is hop- ing to host in Geneva on Jan. 25. The U.N. Security Council took up the issue Monday. The U.N. says 4.5 million Syrians are living in besieged or hard-to- reach areas and desper- ately need humanitarian aid, with civilians pre- vented from leaving and aid workers blocked from bringing in food, medi- cine, fuel and other sup- plies. It will take several days to distribute the aid in the town of Madaya, near Damascus, and the Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in northern Syria, and the supplies are probably enough to last for a month, aid agencies said. "It's really heartbreak- ing to see the situation of the people," said Red Cross spokesman Pawel Krzysiek, who oversaw the distribution in Ma- daya. "A while ago, I was just approached by a lit- tle girl and her first ques- tion was, 'Did you bring food?'" Added Sajjad Malik, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees who took part in the operation: "It's cold and raining, but there is excitement because we are here with some food and blankets." The operation marked a small, positive develop- ment in a bitter conflict now in its fifth year that has killed a quarter of a million people, displaced millions of others and left the country in ruins. Rebels opposed to Pres- ident Bashar Assad are in control of Madaya, a mountain town about 15 miles northwest of Damas- cus. Government troops and fighters from the Leb- anese militant group He- zbollah have surrounded the town. Opposition ac- tivists and aid groups have reported several deaths from starvation in recent weeks. An Associated Press crew saw the first three trucks cross into Madaya on Monday, although jour- nalists were not allowed to accompany the aid work- ers. At the town's entrance, several civilians — includ- ing five children shivering against the cold — said they were waiting to be taken out. "I want out. There is nothing in Madaya, no water, no electricity, no fuel and no food," said Safiya Ghosn, a teacher who stood at the entrance of the town hoping to be evacuated. Aid convoys reach 3 Syria communities besieged for months MEDICINE, OTHER SUPPLIES By E. Eduardo Castillo The Associated Press MEXICO CITY Mexico has begun the process of ex- traditing drug lord Joa- quin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States after the famed fugitive was recap- tured following a dramatic, months-long hunt featuring movie stars, sewer escapes and bloody shootouts. That process will prob- ably take "one year or lon- ger," the head of Mexico's extradition office, Manuel Merino, told Radio Formula on Monday. He said the pro- cess had lasted as long as six years, in one case be- cause of legal challenges. On Sunday, agents for- mally notified Guzman that he was wanted in the United States. In a state- ment, the Attorney Gen- eral's Office said Mexican agents assigned to the in- ternational police agency Interpol served two arrest warrants to the drug lord, who is being held at the Al- tiplano prison following his capture by Mexican ma- rines on Friday. Guzman's defense now has three days to present arguments against extradi- tion and 20 days to present supporting evidence, be- yond the plethora of other appeals they have already started filing. Guzman's powerful Sinaloa cartel smuggles multi-ton shipments of co- caine and marijuana as well as manufacturing and transporting methamphet- amines and heroin, mostly to the U.S. He is wanted in various U.S. states and his July escape deeply embar- rassed the government of President Enrique Pena Ni- eto and strained ties be- tween the countries. Guzman's attorney Juan Pablo Badillo has said the defense has already filed six motions to challenge extra- dition requests. Badillo said that his cli- ent shouldn't be extradited to the U.S. because "our country must respect na- tional sovereignty, the sov- ereignty of its institutions to impart justice." Mexico's willingness to extradite Guzman is a sharp turnaround from the last time he was captured in 2014, when then-Attor- ney General Jesus Murillo Karam said the extradi- tion would happen only af- ter he finished his sentence in Mexico in "300 or 400 years." Guzman was re-appre- hended on Friday after a shootout between gunmen and Mexican marines at the home in Los Mochis, a sea- side city in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa. Five sus- pects were killed and six others arrested. One ma- rine was injured. Mexican authorities say actor Sean Penn's contacts with Guzman helped them track the fugitive down — even if he slipped away from an initial raid on the hide- out where the Hollywood actor apparently met him. The Mexican newspa- per El Universal published 10 photographs Monday that appeared to show how closely Penn was monitored as he arrived in Mexico on Oct. 2 to interview Guzman for Rolling Stone magazine. The photographs that ap- pear to show Penn and ac- tress Kate Del Castillo ar- riving at an airport, then at a hotel, and greeting the men who apparently took them to a small airstrip, from which they flew to the jungle camp to meet Guz- man. The newspaper said the photos, which appear to have been taken with a telephoto lens, are part of a Mexican government intel- ligence file that it obtained. Penn's article on Guzman was published late Saturday by Rolling Stone magazine, a day after the drug lord's recapture. In it, Penn wrote of elaborate security pre- cautions, but also said that as he flew to Mexico on Oct 2 for the meeting, "I see no spying eyes, but I assume they are there." A Mexican federal law en- forcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permit- ted to comment on the is- sue, told the Associated Press the Penn interview led authorities to Guzman in the area of Tamazula, a rural part of Durango state. They raided Guzman's remote hideout a few days after the interview and narrowly missed captur- ing Guzman following his July escape from Mexico's top security prison though a mile-long (1.5-kilometer) tunnel. Describing the capture, Attorney General Arely Go- mez said that investigators had been aided in locating Guzman by documented contacts between his attor- neys and "actors and pro- ducers" she said were in- terested in making a film about him, though she did not name them. Three months after that close call, marines finally caught him in a residen- tial neighborhood of Los Mochis, where they'd been monitoring a suspected safe house. Guzman was able to escape via storm drains and exited a manhole in the street. But he was captured in a vehicle on the highway. In the interview in Roll- ing Stone, Guzman defends his work at the head of the world's biggest drug traf- ficking organization, one blamed for thousands of killings. When asked if he is to blame for high addic- tion rates, he responds: "No, that is false, because the day I don't exist, it's not go- ing to decrease in any way at all. Drug trafficking? That's false." Penn wrote that Guz- man was interested in hav- ing a movie filmed on his life and wanted Mexican ac- tress Kate del Castillo, who had portrayed a drug traf- ficker in a television series, involved in the project. "He was interested in seeing the story of his life told on film, but would en- trust its telling only to Kate," wrote Penn, who appears in a photo posted with the interview shaking hands with Guzman. Penn's representatives have not commented on the claims by Mexican officials. FAMED FUGITIVE Mexico begins extradition proceedings against drug lord EDUARDO VERDUGO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is made to face the press as he is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City, Mexico, on Friday. 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