Baba Amr mission finds civilians gone

UN HUMANITARIAN chief Baroness Amos and a convoy from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were allowed into the devastated Homs district of Baba Amr yesterday, but found that the majority of civilians had fled, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Lady Amos, who was denied entry to Syria last week, is in the country on a three-day mission to try to persuade authorities to grant unhindered access for aid workers to deliver life-saving assistance to civilians.

An ICRC aid convoy has been unable to enter Baba Amr since arriving in Homs last Friday, a day after rebel fighters fled following nearly a month of shelling by Syrian forces.

Activists had reported bloody reprisals by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in Baba Amr after the rebels withdrew.

A team of Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid workers who entered Baba Amr yesterday for the first time in ten days found that most residents had left.