February 10, 2014

Syrian Arab Red Crescent trucks stand in the besieged neighbourhoods of Homs to supply humanitarian aid, February 8, 2014. Reuters pic, February 10, 2014.Aid teams evacuated hundreds of exhausted civilians from besieged Homs city yesterday, as Syria's regime and rebels again accused each other of violating a truce ahead of new peace talks.

The evacuation of around 600 of the 3,000 trapped people came as representatives from both sides converged on Geneva.

Yesterday's evacuation was the second in three days after a UN-brokered truce for besieged districts of Syria's third city began on Friday.

Five men were killed when one besieged district was hit by mortar fire during yesterday's evacuation, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They were the latest deaths in a nearly three-year conflict that has killed 136,000 people and displaced millions.

The Observatory and the Syrian Red Crescent said some 600 people had been evacuated from the Old City of Homs yesterday.

The Red Crescent said on Facebook "around 600 people evacuated today, registration is still ongoing".

"We managed to get 60 food parcels & 1500Kg of flour inside old city."

The Observatory said 611 were brought out "210 women, 180 children, 91 men over 55 years old and 130 young men who surrendered to Syrian authorities under UN supervision," adding the men "will be released soon".

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