Syria Crisis: Homs Evacuation Fails Again, Red Cross Says
Efforts to evacuate civilians and wounded from the battered Syrian city of Homs failed again when a rescue team could not enter affected areas, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday.
Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement that there had been an agreement from Syrian authorities and the opposition for the ICRC team to carry out an evacuation on Wednesday.
“On the spot, however, agreed-upon conditions were not met and the staff were unable to proceed,” she said.
ICRC spokesman Bijan Farnoudi in Geneva declined to provide specifics or apportion blame for the latest setback after the two sides agreed in principle to a humanitarian truce.
It was the second time in a week that the ICRC was forced to turn back to Damascus. On June 21, its joint team with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent heard shooting as it tried to enter the old city where the agency says hundreds of civilians are trapped by fighting.