BEIRUT - Hundreds of civilians were evacuated Sunday from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, braving gunmen spraying bullets and lobbing mortar shells to flee as part of a rare three-day truce to relieve a choking blockade. Dozens were wounded as they fled.
More than 600 people were evacuated from Homs on Sunday, Gov. Talal Barrazi said. The operation was part of a U.N.-mediated truce that began Friday between the government of President Bashar Assad and armed rebels to allow thousands of women, children and elderly men to leave opposition-held parts of the city and to permit the entry of food and supplies.
Forces loyal to Assad have blockaded rebel-held parts of Homs for more than a year, causing widespread hunger and suffering.
Dozens of people were wounded when they came under fire as they waited at an agreed-upon evacuation point in the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Qarabis, according to three activists based in Homs. Rebels said that at least six people died Sunday under mortar fire, but those reports had not been confirmed.
Despite the gunfire and exploding mortar shells, hundreds of women, children and elderly men ran toward a group of Red Crescent workers waiting less than a mile away, said an activist who gave his name as Samer al-Homsy. The Syrian activists said the gunfire came from a government-held neighborhood.
The Syrian news agency SANA also reported that civilians came under fire but blamed “terrorists,” the government term for rebels.
At least four busloads of civilians were shipped out, according to footage broadcast on the Lebanese television station al-Mayadeen. Wide-eyed children, their prominent cheekbones suggestive of malnutrition, tumbled out of a bus, assisted by aid workers.
“Our life was a disaster; we had no food, no water,” one distressed woman said. “There was nothing, my children are all sick. They were thirsty.”
Khaled Erksoussi of the Syrian Red Crescent, which is assisting the operation, said the agency hoped to evacuate as many civilians as possible before the truce expires today.
Because of the mortar fire Sunday, trucks carrying food were unable to enter the besieged areas.
Some limited supplies of food were delivered in SUVs,activists and aid workers said.
The United Nations delivered 250 food parcels and 190 hygiene kits into the Old City on Sunday night, despite the convoy coming under direct fire.
Despite the violence, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in a statement that the truce showed “that even in the darkest of nights it is possible to offer a glimmer of hope to people in desperate need of assistance.”
The Homs cease-fire was arranged by U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who urged the warring sides to aid the estimated 2,500 civilians trapped in the ancient, rebel-held quarters known as Old Homs, to build trust during the first face-to-face meetings of government officials and opposition figures in Switzerland last month.
But the truce only took hold after talks ended, and its last day now coincides with the beginning of another round of U.N.-mediated negotiations in Switzerland today.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft dropped makeshift barrel bombs on a series of rebel-held districts, including one that killed more than 15 people in the neighborhood of Haydariyeh, said the activist group, the Aleppo Media Center. The bombs, crude weapons packed with explosives, fuel and metal, set nine vehicles ablaze, including some carrying civilians fleeing the area.
The bombings are part of a weeks-long campaign by Assad’s forces to wrest control of Aleppo, parts of which were seized by rebels in mid-2012.
On Sunday, extremist rebels killed at least two dozen Alawite gunmen defending their central village of Maan, the Syrian Observatory said. The Syrian state news agency said a “massacre” had occurred but provided no further details. A video uploaded by rebel sympathizers showed at least one man killed, and bearded, grinning gunmen looting village homes. The Observatory said women and children had been evacuated before the gunmen entered.
Meanwhile, the Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera aired what it said was new footage of a dozen Syrian nuns who have been held captive by rebels since December.
Rebels seized the nuns and at least three other women from the Greek Orthodox Mar Takla convent when fighters overran Maaloula, a mainly Christian village north of Damascus.
An activist from the area who uses the name Amer said rebels belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front were holding the nuns. He said Qatar officials were trying to negotiate their release and that the video was likely issued to prove to mediators that the women were in good health.
Information for this article was contributed by Loveday Morris of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/10/2014