| Commissar MercZ | February 9th, 2014 10:08 AM |
600 flee besieged Homs
Continuing off the last post in the Geneva thread, since this is now off-topic. Six hundred leave besieged Old Homs, Syria says | Reuters Quote:
(Reuters) - Six hundred people left the besieged ruins of rebel-held central Homs on Sunday, a local official said, escaping more than a year of hunger and deprivation caused by one of the most protracted blockades of Syria's devastating conflict.
The evacuees, mainly women, children and old men, were brought out by the United Nations and Syrian Red Crescent on the third day of an operation during which the aid convoys came under fire and were briefly trapped themselves in Old Homs.
"The last vehicle has arrived and the total is 611 people," Homs governor Talal al-Barazi told regional Arab television channel Al Mayadeen at a meeting point for evacuees outside the city, adding that more aid was also sent into the rebel area.
Barazi and Red Crescent officials said they were working to extend the operation beyond Sunday, the final day of a fragile and frequently violated three-day ceasefire in the city.
Some of those who came out were men of fighting age who were not originally eligible to leave, Barazi said, but they had agreed to hand themselves over to police and judicial authorities and could win their freedom through amnesty.
| As the article says there they are trying to extend the ceasefire beyond today to continue this evacuation. | 