Syrian Red Crescent, UN humanitarian chief visit Homs

The Syrian Red Crescent has entered the Baba Amr district of the flashpoint city of Homs in western Syria accompanied by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos. "The Syrian Arab Red Crescent stayed inside Baba Amr for about 45 minutes," International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman, Hisham Hassan, said on Wednesday. Amos is also scheduled to meet with the Syrian Red Crescent head, Abdul Rahman Attar, on Thursday. Earlier on Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stressed in a meeting with Amos that the Syrian government was doing its best to supply food and medical care for all citizens, despite the unfair sanctions imposed by some Arab and Western countries on the country. On March 1, the Syrian Army took control of the Baba Amr district after defeating the last pockets of armed gangs, who had been fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the neighborhood. Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. The violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including many security forces. Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. The West and the Syrian opposition, however, accuse the government of killing protesters.