Humanitarian Aid Stopped From Reaching Syrian Flashpoint Area
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has been stopped from bringing medical supplies and humanitarian aid to a battered district of the Syrian city of Homs. The aid delivery was planned after a tactical retreat by opposition forces on Thursday. The United Nations’ human rights office says it received unconfirmed reports of 17 executions after government forces moved into the area.
Pan-Arab television channels showed hundreds of anti-government protesters in the streets of a Homs district Friday, denouncing the government’s storming of the nearby Baba Amr area.
The United Nations and a rights group reported that Baba Amr residents were killed in reprisal after government forces moved into the the district following a retreat Thursday by rebel soldiers.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that a convoy of seven trucks carrying aid was in Homs, ready to enter Baba Amr, but was stopped.
Syrian authorities had given ICRC permission on Thursday to take in aid. But opposition activists say the government is holding up the operation and the ICRC called the delay “unacceptable.”