The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

First group of civilians leave besieged Syrian areas in Homs

Beirut (Alliance News) – The first group of civilians left Syria’s rebel-held old city of Homs on Friday under a temporary ceasefire deal between the regime and the opposition to evacuate residents of besieged areas and let humanitarian aid in.

About 20 families have left by bus, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi told Syria’s official news agency SANA that he expects 400 people to leave over the next three days. Children, women, the wounded and the elderly are chiefly those able to leave.

There are some 3,000 residents trapped in Homs, where streets lay in rubble and the population is suffering from an acute shortage of food and supplies. Under the UN-negotiated truce, those necessities are set to begin arriving this weekend.

Homs is Syria’s third-largest city and occupies a strategic position on the junction between the main Damascus-Aleppo road and the highway leading west to the government’s stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.

It has been one of the main battlegrounds in the three-year-old war between government troops and rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

The plight of its residents was the focus of negotiations at peace talks that ended in Geneva last week having achieved little.

Syria’s foreign ministry said Friday a government delegation would attend a second round of talks set to begin next week in the Swiss city.

“The delegation confirms the continuation of efforts made at the first round of the conference,” Deputy Foreign Minister Feisal al-Meqdad said, according to the official SANA news agency.

The Syrian opposition said earlier that it will take part.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which has a network of activists inside Syria, says the conflict has claimed at least 130,000 lives.

The United Nations said in January that it had stopped counting the dead, citing an inability to access conflict zones. In July, it put the toll at 100,000.

Copyright dpa