Syria: Red Cross shut out of Homs as bombardment goes on unabated

SYRIAN forces renewed their bombardment of the shattered city of Homs yesterday, as the Red Cross vowed to try again to reach thousands of people stranded in the Baba Amr district, overrun last week by regime troops after a month-long siege.

Conditions in the western district of Baba Amr have been described as catastrophic, with extended power cuts, shortages of food and water, and an absence of medical care for the sick and wounded.

Syrian government forces took control of the neighbourhood on Thursday after rebels fled under constant bombardment, which activists say has killed hundreds of people since the beginning of last month.

The Syrian regime has said it was fighting “armed gangs” in Baba Amr, and has vowed to “cleanse” the neighbourhood.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had received permission from president Bashar al-Assad’s government to enter Baba Amr. A convoy of seven lorries with 15 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, medical supplies and blankets, left Damascus on Friday, taking several hours in heavy snow to reach Homs.

But once they neared Baba Amr, the government prevented them from entering. “We are still in negotiations to enter Baba Amr,” ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said yesterday in Geneva.

The Syrians said they were not letting the Red Cross into Baba Amr because of safety concerns, including land mines, Hassan said, adding the organisation had not been able to verify the danger. The government has not offered its explanation for revoking the permission. “It’s important that we get in,” Hassan said. “We are not about to give up.”

Other areas in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city with about one million residents, came under heavy shelling yesterday, including areas where many of Baba Amr’s residents had fled. The Local Co-ordination Committees activist network said mortars slammed into the districts of Khaldiyeh, Bab Sbaa and Khader.

In Damascus, Red Crescent officials handed over to embassy officials the bodies of two foreign journalists who were killed in shelling while trapped inside Baba Amr.

French Ambassador Eric Chevallier received the body of French photographer Remi Ochlik, and a Polish diplomat received the remains of American Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times reporter killed in Baba Amr last week.