Homs evacuations resume as Syria peace talks falter

The evacuation of civilians and delivery of aid to besieged rebel-held areas of Syria's third city Homs resumed Wednesday, as peace talks in Geneva struggled to make headway.

Government and opposition delegations again met face-to-face on day three of the second round of talks in Switzerland, but the government side refused even to discuss a transition plan put forward by the opposition.

And the hard-won talks had no effect on the bloodshed at home, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting an average daily death toll of 236 people since the launch of their first round on January 22, the highest since the uprising erupted nearly three years ago.

The observatory said the army launched an offensive backed by air power against Yabrud, the last rebel bastion in the strategic Qalamoun region.

A total of 217 civilians who wanted to escape more than 18 months of tight army blockade were evacuated from the rebel enclave on Wednesday, after the relief operation was suspended the previous day, provincial Governor Talal al-Barazi told AFP.

"The operation went well and smoothly," Barazi said.

The evacuations bring the total number of people given safe passage out since Friday to more than 1,400.

They came hours after 190 food parcels and 4,700 kilogrammes (10,340 pounds) of flour were taken into the besieged rebel enclave, the Syrian Red Crescent's head of operations Khaled Erksoussi said.

"There are children there, and this is very heartbreaking, that this is the first time they see a banana," Erksoussi told AFP.

Red Crescent staff backed by UN agencies began evacuating some of the estimated 3,000 civilians trapped in besieged areas on Friday under a UN-brokered humanitarian truce between the government and the rebels.

Concern has grown, however, over the fate of some 336 male evacuees aged between 15 and 55, who UN officials say were detained for questioning by the security services as they left Homs.

According to Barazi, 111 of them have since been released.

Activists inside Homs said some men leaving had been prevented from heading to the destinations of their choice, and had been stripped of their standard issue identity cards.

The evacuations have also been marred by violence in violation of the promised truce, with aid convoys coming under fire and 14 people killed in shelling.


The operation has been welcomed internationally, and is providing desperately needed relief for civilians who have described surviving on little more than olives and wild plants.

"We will use any chance we get to get in and deliver aid and help people to leave, because we believe this chance won't come again," Erksoussi said.

But Barazi said that with the relief operation due to end Wednesday, a meeting was to take place to discuss the possibility of prolonging the truce in Homs and continuing aid.

In Geneva, the opposition National Coalition laid out a transition plan, including chasing out foreign fighters and a path to elections. But the government refused to discuss it, saying the first item on the agenda was the battle against rebel "terrorism".

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad insisted the political question was meant to come much later, and that switching issues around was a "recipe for disaster and failure".

Muqdad said the priority was "terrorism" -- the regime's term for a revolt it says is fuelled by foreign jihadists and Gulf money.