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Martin Nesirky

A convoy of United Nations buses has arrived in the besieged central Syrian city of Homs and started an initial evacuation of 200 women and children from its most heavily-bombarded districts. The humanitarian breakthrough comes as the Syrian deputy foreign minister has said the government will take part in a second round of peace talks in Geneva.

Some 12 civilians came out on the first evacuation bus, among nearly 200 expected to be brought out during the day amid a heavy troop presence.

State television reported that two busloads left Homs with a total of 35 people on board, mostly women, children and the elderly.

Footage broadcast on state television and other networks showed elderly and apparently frail men wrapped in blankets being helped into a bus by Red Crescent volunteers.

The convoy arrived yesterday after an uneasy ceasefire came into effect after the implementation of a truce discussed at peace talks in Switzerland last week. An expected delivery of humanitarian aid and food has been delayed until today.

Speaking to Syrian state television, Homs governor Talal al-Barazi said the atmosphere was “positive” ahead of the operation which began around midday.

Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting on the evacuation from neighbouring Lebanon, said it was delayed due to logistical and technical reasons, including security concerns.

The besieged city remained largely quiet later yesterday, adding to hopes the truce would continue long enough for the initial evacuation to be completed, but there were reports of a shooting.

Meanwhile,  a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a Syrian prison and rebels stormed in behind him, freeing hundreds of inmates as part of an offensive aimed at capturing key government symbols in and around the northern city of Aleppo, activists said.

Government forces, meanwhile, dropped crude “barrel bombs” in deadly airstrikes as both sides escalated their fight for the strategic city ahead of a second round of peace talks set for next week.

Opposition leaders threatened to suspend the talks over the barrel bombings.
In the past six days alone, the makeshift weapons — containers packed with explosives, fuel and scrap metal — have killed more than 250 people in Aleppo, including 73 children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

They include at least 11 who died Thursday — six of them from the same family — in the opposition-held neighbourhood of Masaken Hanano.

Videos uploaded by activists showed the aftermath, including men weeping amid ravaged buildings and corpses covered with blankets on the pavement.

“Be careful. There’s a corpse under your feet . . . It’s a child!” someone shouted. The videos were consistent with reporting AP.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored “the ongoing aerial attacks and the use of “barrel bombs” to brutal, devastating effect in populated areas” which violate international humanitarian and human rights law, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

In other developments, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government said it has reached an agreement with the United Nations to let hundreds of trapped civilians leave besieged parts of the city of Homs and permit UN humanitarian relief convoys to enter. — AP