Syrian rebel forces “strategically withdraw” from their stronghold of Homs, reportedly leaving the area and its 4,000 civilians in control of government forces.
After 26 days of intense fighting, most of the Syrian rebel fighters have pulled out of the Baba Amr district of Homs, according to the Free Syrian Army. In a statement from (see below), it said they were pulling out to protect the 4,000 civilians still living in the area.
A security official in Damascus confirmed the rebel withdrawal, telling AFP: “The Syrian army controls all of Baba Amr. The last pockets of resistance have fallen.”
The rebel fighters said they placed “full responsibility” on the international Red Cross to save the remaining civilians and warned government forces not to hurt civilians, saying: “We warn, any action by the regime that crosses the limits and affects civilians will see a severe response from our side.”
The ICRC today said the Syrian government had given it the go-ahead to enter Baba Amr on Friday to deliver urgent food and medical aid, and to help with evacuation operations. Bad weather conditions and snow prevented trucks with emergency supplies from entering Homs today.
Ten days ago, the organisation requested a two-hour daily ceasefire to allow the delivery of vital aid and on Thursday, received “positive indicators” that this would be allowed.
“It is more urgent than ever to implement our initiative of a humanitarian ceasefire in the shortest delay, all the more since the humanitarian situation is extremely worrying,” said a spokesman.
Hours before the rebels announced their departure, Foreign Secretary William Hague removed all UK diplomatic staff from Damascus and closed the UK embassy.
In a written statement to parliament, Mr Hague said the reason he had maintained an embassy in Syria was to help maintain communications with all parties in Syria and “to provide insight into the situation on the ground”.
He added that the decision was made for the safety of staff and “in no way reduces the UK’s commitment to active diplomacy to maintain pressure on the Assad regime to end the violence”.
“We now judge that the deterioration of the security situation in Damascus puts our embassy staff and premises at risk and have taken the decision to withdraw staff accordingly,” he said.
The opposition Syrian National Council on Thursday also released a statement saying that after a period of peaceful resistance, it had formed a “military bureau” to organise the armed resistance to Assad’s forces.
Exceprts from the Free Syrian Army statement:
“We, the Baba Amr brigade, have decided to strategically withdraw for the sake of the civilians remaining inside the neighbourhood. The humanitarian situation is at its worst, as there is no food whatsoever, no medicines, no water and no electricity.
“The Assad army has destroyed most of the civilian homes up to now by use of missiles from multiple missile launchers, helicopters that have attacked Baba Amr from the skies and tank shelling using mortar shells type 120ml.
“We are now calling on the International Red Cross to immediately enter and remove all civilians, we place full responsibility on them in that they must enter and save the people and hand them all aid necessary to keep them alive.
“The families have refused to leave, thus they must be provided with aid immediately. They have refused to leave their destroyed homes, homes that have been blown up during the barbaric attacks for the last month. The number of civilians refusing to leave is around 4000.
“We warn the Assad regime against any reaction that will target civilians and we place full responsibility on the regime for the safety of the civilians who are caught in the middle of this. We warn, any action by the regime that crosses the limits and affects civilians will see a severe response from our side.”
Syrian forces on Wednesday launched a ground assault on Homs, with 7,000 troops reportedly surrounding the Baba Amr area of the city that has been held by rebels through the 25 day siege. Communication with the area has been cut off since Wednesday, including a media centre that was responsible for much of the information from the area, so it remains difficult to confirm news reports.
If we are going to succeed, it is extremely important that we all accept that there should be one process of mediation. When you have more than one, and people take their own initiatives, the parties play with the mediators. Kofi Annan, newly appointed Syrian meditator
On Thursday morning, the UN Security Council condemned President Assad’s government for human rights violations in Syria and called for a halt on civilian attacks. The only three states not to vote in favour of the resolution were China, Cuba and Russia, leading the US human rights ambassador to say the three countries are “on the wrong side of history”.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon again urged the Syrian authorities to recognise their “obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law”.
The UN’s humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator Baroness Valerie Amos, was yesterday prevented from entering the country to assess the scale of suffering caused by the violence. However on Thursday, Syria said it would welcome a visit by the UN humanitarian chief.
Read more: The horror in Homs
Kofi Annan, who has been appointed the new international mediator on Syria for the UN and the Arab League, on Thursday made it clear that the international community needed to have a united approach to mediation.
“If we are going to succeed, it is extremely important that we all accept that there should be one process of mediation. The one both the UN and the Arab League have asked me to lead.” he said.
“When you have more than one, and people take their own initiatives, the parties play with the mediators.”
Speaking in New York, Mr Annan said he hoped to visit Syria soon, responding to calls from the oppoisition Syrian National Council.