Local Editor
Despite firing on aid convoys, at least 65 civilians were evacuated from besieged districts of Homs city on Sunday.
“Sixty-five civilians, all children, women and elderly men, were evacuated from the Old City of Homs, in compliance with an agreement between the UN and the governor of Homs,” said the official news agency SANA.
The Syrian TV said the operation took place under fire from armed terrorist groups,” using the regime’s term for rebels.
Meanwhile, the London-based opposition observatory, known as “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” and activists said fire hit the district of Qarabis in Homs, where dozens of civilians were gathered for evacuation by the UN.
“Dozens of civilians were evacuated,” said the Britain-based Observatory, adding that fire from unknown sources hit parts of the Qarabis neighborhood.
Sunday’s evacuation was the second in three days, since a UN-brokered truce for army-besieged districts of Homs was to have come into effect on Friday.
But on Saturday, shelling and gunfire hit a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy, killing five residents of the city’s neighborhoods and wounding 20 others.
The government accused the foreign-backed militants of targeting these neighborhoods with mortar shells in a bid to hinder the humanitarian pause agreed between Damascus and the UN.
Source: Al Manar
