Regime Shells In Homs, Even as Evacuation Starts

Even as it began the evacuation of a group of 83 civilians from the Old City of Homs, the Assad regime was attacking the nearby district of al-Waer, home to many displaced Syrians, activists said.

State news agency SANA says a first group of 83 civilians has been moved from the besieged Old City in Homs.

The report said the group was allowed into the Deek al-Jinn area.

“The United Nations can confirm that 83 people were evacuated from Old Homs City today,” said United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq. “The people — women, children and the elderly — were then delivered to places of their choice, escorted by United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff.”

Elizabeth Byrs of the UN’s World Food Program said:

They were living on leaves and grass and olives and whatever they could find….

There are signs of malnutrition, for some of them it is very obvious. Some said they have not eaten bread for five months.

Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi said earlier on Friday that about 200 civilians will be evacuated in the first wave.

United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said 13 days ago, at the Geneva II conference, that he hoped for agreement on evacuation and aid into the Old City. However, opposition and local activists expressed concern that the evacuation was a regime plan to isolate men in the Old City — leaving them vulnerable to detention and attack — and Damascus refused to agree to the aid arrangements in talks with the UN.

The Homs Governor said that aid would begin moving into the Old City on Saturday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry indicated that the intervention of its Embassy in Damascus had been instrumental in getting agreement to a plan. It declared:

The result of difficult, multi-day negotiations…is an agreement to cease fire for three days and provide humanitarian support to the residents of the Old City of Homs….

It is foreseen that all children, women, men under age 55, as well as wounded people, can leave the combat zone without obstacle.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the agreement justified Russia’s opposition to any UN measure condemning the Assad regime’s blocking of aid to areas under siege: “This confirms that the humanitarian problems of the Syrian population can be solved through concrete steps, not the adoption by the U.N. Security Council of politicised resolutions.” EA