LATEST: Reports: Jabhat al-Nusra Strikes Back at Islamic State of Iraq in Eastern Syria
SATURDAY FEATURE
Barrel Bombs On Aleppo Kill At Least 15
UPDATE 2100 GMT: After delays because of fighting and firing on a United Nations convoy, some aid was finally delivered in the Old City in Homs on Saturday:
Photo from old city #homs where the aid was delivered today. pic.twitter.com/kRctc4JNLn
— Syrian Red Crescent (@SYRedCrescent) February 8, 2014
UPDATE 1830 GMT: The aid promised for the Old City of Homs was postponed on Saturday by explosions and fighting.
The Syrian Red Crescent said that the aid convoy was fired on, wounding one driver:
Shots fired targeting aid trucks and the team…..Mortar shells falling in close proximity near the team and aid trucks that moved into Old City.
The regime and opposition accused each other of breaking a three-day cease-fire.
“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,” Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi said.
The opoosition’s Unified Media Office claimed, “The besieged areas have been pounded with mortar rounds since Saturday morning. The shelling is also targeting the road on which the humanitarian aid is supposed to be transported.”
An activist in the Old City also blamed Assad supporters, “Besieged neighborhoods, particularly those close to Khamadiya where the aid convoys are due to enter, have been targeted by mortar fire from pro-government areas.”
Claimed footage of aftermath of attack by Assad supporters on the convoy:
The convoy is carrying emergency rations for 2,500 people, medical kits, and bedding, as well as cash and other support for the “immediate needs both of those who choose to be evacuated from the area and of those who remain inside”.
UPDATE 1530 GMT: The delivery of aid into the Old City in Homs has been postponed by explosions and fighting this morning:
I don't think ceasefire is still in effect!! Big explosions and heavy gunfire!! #Homs
— samer (@samersniper) February 7, 2014
The United Nations World Food Program says it hopes to move in the aid trucks later today:
@WFP's @AbeerEtefa tells me plan now is that convoy to #Homs Old City will resume once the explosions stop and situation calms down #Syria
— Mohammed Jamjoom (@JamjoomCNN) February 8, 2014
Trucks on standby waiting for the "all clear" to deliver aid to the old city #homs (photo:@samdagher ) pic.twitter.com/4xC2OpPB3f
— Syrian Red Crescent (@SYRedCrescent) February 8, 2014
After a week dominated by the Assad regime’s bombs, an evacuation in Homs takes over headlines this morning.
A group of 83 people, many of them malnourished, were moved from the Old City of Homs to another neighborhood.
Both the Governor of Homs and the United Nations said that a delivery of aid to the Old City, besieged for more than 600 days, would be made on Saturday.
“UN teams have pre-positioned food, medical and other basic supplies for immediate delivery as soon as the first group of civilians are out and we hope to send this aid on Saturday morning,” said the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Syria, Yacoub El Hillo.
The arrangement of evacuation and aid had been held up for almost two weeks after it was put forward by United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi at the Geneva II conference. Opposition and local activists expressed concern that Syrian forces would use the evacuation of the ill, women, and children to isolate, detain, and attack men who remained. The Assad regime refused to give permission for the aid despite protracted discussions with the UN.
The arrangement for limited evacuation — the Homs Governor said it would be up to 200 people — and aid was apparently struck after the intervention of the Russian Embassy in Damascus.
According to the Russian Foreign ministry, the agreement “provides that all children, women, men older than 55, as well as the wounded can freely leave the combat zone”.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the evacuees “will be placed in temporary accommodation, provided with food and medical care. Those residents of Old Homs who choose to stay, will be made the focus of needed humanitarian assistance.”
However, even as the evacuation was taking place, there were reports of regime shelling nearby, including an attack on a mosque.
Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees said 91 people were killed on Friday, including 36 in Aleppo Province, 16 in Hama Province, 11 in Homs Province, and 10 in Daraa Province.
More videos of the evacuation:
Reports: Jabhat al-Nusra Strikes Back at Islamic State of Iraq in Eastern Syria
Numerous reports indicate that the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra has hit back at the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham in Deir Ez Zor Province in eastery Syria, retaking facilities seizing by ISIS earlier this week.
ISIS had claimed control of a gas plant, several grain stores, and factories.
Jabhat al-Nusra reportedly retook the positions and launched more attacks with the assistance of local tribes, killing Libyan-born ISIS commander Abu Dujana.
