A Red Cross convoy carrying humanitarian aid has reached the besieged Syrian city of Homs.
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But a spokesman for the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, Saleh Dabbakeh, said the convoy of seven trucks was carrying food, medicines, baby milk and other essential items had been unable to enter the Bab Amr neighbourhood on Friday for security reasons.
The news came as a spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner expressed alarm at reports it had received that 17 people had been summarily executed by government forces in the same neighbourhood.
“We are not able to confirm this information but we remind the authorities of their obligations under international law,” spokesman Rupert Colville said from Geneva.
Also on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had convened a meeting of humanitarian organisations for March 8 in Geneva to evaluate the situation in Syria and develop an action plan.
Among those present will be the Arab League, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and the European Commission.
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