Fighting as besieged civilians in Syria's Homs await aid

Fighting erupted around besieged rebel-held districts of the Syrian city of Homs Saturday with the UN poised to deliver aid to desperate civilians on day two of a humanitarian truce.

The regime and activists traded accusations over responsibility for the clashes, a day after 83 children, women and elderly people who had survived more than 600 days in the war-battered enclave were evacuated.

The evacuation and planned aid delivery were made possible by a surprise UN-brokered deal between the government and rebel commanders on the ground to observe a three-day "humanitarian pause" in hostilities.

But five explosions were heard at 8:30 am (0530 GMT) Saturday in the besieged neighbourhoods, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

"The armed terrorist groups broke the truce this morning in the Old City of Homs by launching mortar rounds at the police headquarters in the Saa area," Homs provincial governor Talal al-Barazi said.

State news agency SANA quoted him as saying military commanders were told to exercise maximum restraint "to allow the evacuation of civilians".

But activists accused regime forces of breaking the truce.

"The besieged areas have been pounded with mortar rounds since Saturday morning," the Unified Media Office activist group in the besieged areas of Homs said.

"The shelling is also targeting the road on which the humanitarian aid is supposed to be transported," the statement said.

It charged the firing came from pro-regime majority Alawite areas bordering districts under siege.

"Besieged neighbourhoods, particularly those close to Hamadiyeh where the aid convoys are due to enter, have been targeted by mortar fire from pro-government areas," an activist in the Old City, who gave his name only as Yazan, said.

The exiled opposition expressed concern the promised aid delivery could be aborted, saying it would be "devastating to those innocent civilians who remain within the area under siege".

"We call on the world to look carefully at what happens in Homs in the coming hours and days."

The truce had eluded mediators in last month's fruitless first round of peace talks between government and opposition delegations in Switzerland which are due to resume in Geneva on Monday.

Emergency rations for 2,500

Desperately needed food and medicines have been held up for months in a UN warehouse in a government-controlled area just kilometres (miles) from the trapped civilians, awaiting a ceasefire.

"Aid convoy is now being loaded and prepared to go to the Old City of Homs," the Red Crescent tweeted shortly before 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

UN officials said the trucks would carry emergency rations for 2,500 people, medical kits and bedding, as well as cash and other support for the "immediate needs both of those who choose to be evacuated from the area and of those who remain inside".

Even after Friday's evacuation of the first batch of civilians who chose to leave, hundreds more women, children and elderly remain among the 2,500-plus residents still trapped.

Activists say they have been surviving for months on little but olives and wild cereals.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said there had been sporadic shooting during Friday's evacuation, but that both sides broadly observed the ceasefire.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos hailed the Homs truce as a "breakthrough" and "a small but important step toward compliance with international humanitarian law," Haq added.

"We'll try to evacuate more civilians and deliver aid in the next few days."

Red Crescent volunteers helped frail-looking elderly people wrapped in blankets to board a bus Friday, as a woman on a stretcher awaited her turn, an AFP correspondent reported.

Amateur video filmed by activists in the nearby Waar area showed a man smiling as he embraced a son he had not seen for more than 18 months.

Saturday's aid delivery was expected to be followed by further evacuations Sunday, a cleric inside the rebel enclave told AFP via the Internet.

"On Sunday, we plan for many women and children to leave," Abdul Hareth al-Khalidi said.

The Observatory said five of those evacuated on Friday were children, and 17 were women.

Homs was dubbed "the capital of the revolution" by activists before a bloody 2012 counter-offensive by President Bashar al-Assad's forces recaptured much of the city.

Large areas of Homs have been reduced to rubble.

Assad's forces blockaded the remaining rebel-held areas after their 2012 assault and further tightened the noose last summer by capturing the town of Qusayr, which cut off rebel supply lines to neighbouring Lebanon.