Homs, People being bombed and starving to death in a daily bases

Syria conflict: Aid and evacuations continue in Homs

More than 1,000 civilians have been evacuated from Homs so far, as Lyse Doucet reports

The UN-backed evacuation of civilians and delivery of aid has continued at the besieged rebel-held Old City of Homs.

More than 200 civilians left, joining hundreds allowed out since the truce was agreed on Friday.

But concerns remain over the fate of men of military age who face questioning by the Syrian authorities.

Meanwhile, talks between the warring sides have continued in Geneva, with no sign of any breakthrough.

An abandoned ballroom on the edge of Homs is being used to care for evacuees, Lyse Doucet says

In other developments:

• Syrian government forces and their Lebanese Shia ally Hezbollah have stepped up an assault on the strategic opposition-held town of Yabroud, near the Lebanese border, with at least 13 air strikes reported. Lebanese officials told the BBC dozens of families were streaming over the border in anticipation of a major assault
• Syrian government and opposition delegations are holding a third day of talks in Geneva
• A man thought to be the first Briton to have carried out a suicide bombing in Syria is named as Abdul Waheed Majid

Meanwhile sharp words have been exchanged by Washington and Moscow after Russia again objected to a draft UN Security Council resolution - this time, one that would call on all sides to allow aid workers access across Syria.

That was criticised by US President Barack Obama, who called Russia a "holdout" and suggested that by blocking the resolution it too was responsible for "starving civilians", along with Syria.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the criticism as a "biased distortion", highlighting Russia's role in helping achieve the ceasefire in Homs and insisting Russia was as concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria as Washington.

But the BBC's Nick Bryant at the UN in New York says that although Russia has rejected this present draft, it has not slammed the door on an alternative resolution.

'Weeding out terrorists'

Government troops have besieged Homs for 18 months.

Evacuations over the weekend were facilitated by a three-day truce, which was then extended until Wednesday, though the relief operation was halted by a day on Tuesday due to logistical reasons.

Nearly 200 parcels containing flour, rice, vegetable oil and other foodstuffs were delivered on Wednesday.

The UN's local humanitarian co-ordinator, Yacoub El Hillo, and Homs Governor Talal Barazi said more than 200 civilians had been taken out of Homs in Wednesday's operation.

But hundreds of civilians remain trapped inside the Old City.

Mr Barazi said an extension to the current ceasefire, due to end late on Wednesday, could be agreed.

UN agencies have also expressed concern over the fate of dozens of men who were taken in by Syrian security personnel after they fled Homs.

Mr Barazi said 111 men had been questioned and released, while 190 others were still being held.

"I just want to say I hope that that the bigger percentage will all be released," he told the BBC.

"They are living in a shelter in very good conditions."

The Syrian authorities said the screening was necessary to weed out "terrorists".

Syrians forced to eat grass; aid worker says deprivation worst he’s ever seen

A World Food Programme aid director on the ground in Syria described to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday the desperate situation of civilians in war-ravaged Homs – something he said he had “never seen” before in his career.

“Nobody is able to actually feed themselves, feed their children, feed their families, with anything but the weed, the grass that they can pick on the side of the curb and what little that they can eke out from what they’ve saved over time,” Matthew Hollingworth, Syria director for the World Food Programme, said on the phone from Homs.

“They’re living in tunnels, they’re living in basements of apartment buildings which are otherwise destroyed, basements of shopping centers.”

“They are barely, and they have been barely, existing,” he said. “I’ve never seen levels of deprivation such as this.”

The United Nations is taking advantage of a rare, and very shaky ceasefire to deliver aid to civilians in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Homs.

There were rumors on Tuesday that aid had been suspended, but Hollingworth said that it had merely been paused so that aid workers could regroup and plan for the following day.

“So far we’ve managed to get enough food and medical assistance into old Homs for around 1,500 people for one month,” he said. “We’re going back tomorrow.”

The UN is assisting civilians who wish to flee Homs, one of the hardest-hit cities in the Syrian war.

“Nobody is living a normal life today,” he said.

He and his team spent eight hours in Homs’ center, the old city, and he said that there is “not a single building left in the old city of Homs which as a structure hasn’t been affected.”

Some civilians, who have already withstood nearly three years of war, are refusing to leave, he said.

“There are people who are so attached to their ancestral homes, to what they do have inside, they just don’t want to go. And they’re in desperate need of our assistance.”

There is some fear that once many families, women, and children escape the city that the Syrian government will feel like it has more leeway to bomb what is left of Homs with impunity.

“Sadly I don’t think there are any guarantees in that sense,” Holingworth said.

Now that this mission has proven how many people have been surviving in Homs all this time and that so many people have been willing to come out of hiding, Hollingworth expressed hope that the mission could be “replicated” elsewhere.

“We’re looking at the beginning of something that could be replicated elsewhere in Syria; we’re looking at something that actually could be replicated to bring peace to normal people’s lives.

My article

People in Homs of Syria are going through a civil war. Help arrives from activists and other countries but it is still not enough. People are living in the fear that a bomb might kill them from second to second or soldiers will break into their houses and kill them or take them hostage. They survive weeks with very little food and no medical care. This conflict caused death to more than 100,000 people and driven 9,5 million people from their homes. A British-based group which has links to the opposition has confirmed at least 4,959 people deaths in a last three week period since 22 January. Meanwhile, the bloodshed continues inside Syria, with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights saying Syrians are being killed at a faster rate than ever. In Geneva, Syrian government and opposition negotiators met face-to-face again on Wednesday.The opposition proposed a transitional governing government body (TGB) be set up to oversee a UN-monitored ceasefire across Syria and steer it out of the nearly three-year war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26148194

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/11/syrians-forced-to-eat-grass-aid-worker-says-deprivation-worst-hes-ever-seen/?iref=allsearch