ICRC Live Blog

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was shot dead and three others were wounded in the town of Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says. 

"We are saddened and extremely shocked by the death of Mohammed al-Khadraa," Dr Abdul Rahman al-Attar, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said in a statement. "This is the third fatal incident involving the Red Crescent in less than eight months." 

Khadraa was shot and killed on Tuesday in a vehicle clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem, the statement said. 

On Thursday, Syria's state news agency said an armed terrorist group killed Khadraa when it opened fire on a Red Crescent ambulance, but did not give details on the group.  

Opposition activists, who have been trying for over a year to topple President Bashar al-Assad, said that government forces have been shelling Douma with mortar bombs for a week. 

[Reuters]

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem pledged Tuesday that Syria will do its utmost to ensure the success of a Red Cross mission to the strife-torn country, in a statement from his office.

Muallem met Jakob Kellenberger, the visiting head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been pushing for a daily humanitarian truce in the year-long conflict in Syria.

"Mr Muallem reviewed the details of the ICRC mission and needs within the scope of its humanitarian work in Syria," his office said.

"He reiterated Syria's willingness to provide the ICRC with all that is needed to ensure the success of its humanitarian mission."

It added the two sides had agreed on a "co-operation mechanism" between the ICRC, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the foreign ministry in order to overcome any obstacles.

"Kellenberger for his part expressed his appreciation to Syrian authorities for allowing the ICRC access to areas affected by the unrest in order to provide assistance to those in need," said the statement.

Ahead of his third trip to Syria since 2011, Kellenberger said he was "determined to see the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent expand their presence, range and scope of activities to address the needs of vulnerable people.

"This will be a key element of my talks with the Syrian officials," he said in a statement.

- Reuters

Read our latest news story here: UN team expected in Syria within 48 hours

For more of Al Jazeera's special coverage visit our Spotlight page: Syria - The War Within

The international Red Cross said on Monday that its chief received "positive indications of support" from Moscow regarding his proposal for a daily two-hour truce in Syria for aid workers to deliver relief.

"In their meeting, the ICRC received positive indications of support for our initiative of a daily halt in fighting in all the regions affected by the violence," Hicham Hassan, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told AFP.

ICRC chief Jakob Kellenberger met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday in what was described as a "positive" meeting that lasted about an hour and a half. Beyond the aid truce proposal, the pair also "discussed the importance today of neutral and independent humanitarian action in Syria," Hassan said.

"We hope to see concrete results from our contacts on the ground. In the meanwhile, we will continue our humanitarian activities with our partner, the Syrian Red Crescent," he added. Moscow, an ally of Damascus, is seen as having a certain amount of influence on the Syrian leadership. [AFP]

Hicham Hassan, an ICRC spokesman in Geneva, has just been speaking with Al Jazeera about the Syrian Red Crescent's visit to Bab Amr earlier today.

The team that went in spent around 45 minutes inside the neighbourhood of Baba Amr

The objective was to go and see if people ... still need help. The main comment that we got was that the vast majority of people had left Bab Amr. It happens so that today the ICRC and the Syrian Red Crescent were in a village called Abel, that's 10km away from Homs city.

Today we managed to assess that 450 families, the majority of them came from Baba Amr. Two days ago, same, around 250 families. There are many other families that are scattered around other neighbourhoods in Homs, for example Inshaat, which was equally affected by the violence, along with other areas. And this is what we're trying to continue  to look for those families and others who are affected.

[...] What I can tell you, however, about families that we have seen in the village of Abel is that some had arrived about four or five months ago. And some arrived around a week ago.

Obviously what we were aiming at is entering many, many days. We requested a ceasefire on a daily basis was about two weeks ago now. Which was not set up in place yet.

I think the ... positive thing that we managed to do with the Red Crescent is start looking for families who had left Bab Amr more than a week ago.

Our negotiations when we first wanted to enter Bab Amr were both with the Syrian authorities and the opposition. Obviously for us the call to enter Bab Amr, which is a parallel process to our overall demand for the cessation of fighting on a daily basis lasted for a long time, we had a green light from the authorities a few days back - on a daily basis we had assurances that we could go in, but what was obvious until now was that we were not allowed to go in and not even have a date about it.

People were extremely happy to see that finally somebody came to help. A lot of people were just losing hope.

It's not only Homs, it's not only Bab Amr. We are working with the Red Crescent all over the areas. Unrest is in Hama, is in Idlib, is in Deraa. Idlib, especially the rural areas has been affected very largely by the fighting, so what we plan to do is to continue and even tomorrow to go back to those affected areas and help as many people as possible.