Sunday Times 2
Fighting as aid due to enter besieged Homs in Syria
View(s):BEIRUT, Feb 8 (AFP) -Fighting erupted today around besieged areas of the Syrian city of Homs as a UN-supervised aid delivery was due to enter, and both sides traded accusations of truce violations.
On the second day of a humanitarian ceasefire, Homs provincial governor Talal al-Barazi called on the army to exercise “restraint” to ensure civilians could be evacuated from blockaded rebel-held areas.
Civilians carry their belongings as they walk towards a meeting point to be evacuated from a besieged area of Homs (Reuters)
Five explosions were heard at 8:30 am (0530 GMT) in the besieged neighbourhoods, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
State news agency SANA quoted Barazi as saying: “The armed terrorist groups broke the truce this morning in the Old City of Homs by launching mortar rounds at the police headquarters in the Saa area.
“Military commanders were told to exercise maximum restraint in order to allow the evacuation of civilians who are being held by the armed groups in the Old City,” he added.
Activists in turn accused the regime of bombarding the besieged neighbourhoods and breaking the agreed three-day truce.
“The besieged areas have been pounded with mortar rounds since Saturday morning,” a statement from activists said.
“The shelling is also targeting the road on which the humanitarian aid is supposed to be transported,” it said, charging that the firing came from pro-regime majority Alawite areas bordering the besieged districts.
Homs is divided along sectarian lines, with most Sunnis supporting the rebels. Alawites, from the same religious community as President Bashar al-Assad, back the regime.
A handful of rebel-held districts in central Homs have been besieged for more than 600 days.