Red Crescent Live Blog

12 weeks 2 days ago - Syria


The Syrian Arab Red Crescent rejected as "untrue" allegations appearing in some media questioning its neutrality, which it said had undermined trust in its staff, put their lives at risk and hampered aid efforts.

Abdul-Rahman Attar, president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said in a statement issued in Geneva that the group had provided humanitarian aid to thousands of people in need in the country "regardless of their nationality, religion or political affiliation".

They included 30 people evacuated by its volunteers from the Bab Amr district of Homs since last Friday, he said.

"We are gravely concerned, and stress that these allegations are not only untrue, but are an affront to the sacrifices our staff and volunteers continue to make to gain access and provide humanitarian aid to all Syrian people in need, regardless of their nationality, religion, or political affiliation."  

Tags Assad, protests, Red Crescent
14 weeks 4 days ago - Syria

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy reached Homs on Saturday to deliver food, medical supplies, blankets and "hygiene consumables" to thousands of people, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Sunday. 

"We are greatly concerned about the consequences of the unrest from a humanitarian viewpoint and about the current deterioration of the situation", said Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC's delegation in Syria, who led the convoy that entered Homs. "The population, particularly the wounded and sick, are bearing the brunt of the violence."

Another convoy reached the town of Bludan, 50km northwest of Zabadani, a town that had been the scene of brief fighting between the government and the armed opposition. Many civilians have fled Zabadani.

Tags homs, ICRC, Red Crescent
36 weeks 9 hours ago - Syria

Syrian state television aired an interview with Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, one of the first officers to defect from the military after the uprising began.

The Associated Press reports:

In the interview Harmoush, of the so-called Free Officers Movement, retracted comments he made earlier, in which he said he was ordered by his commanders to open fire at protesters.

He said that soon after his defection, he was contacted by opposition figures and groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, former Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam and Assad's uncle, Rifaat, offering to help his group financially.

"They were all empty promises," said Harmoush. He said they all stopped contacting him three months after his defection.

Harmoush said he was told by members of the Muslim Brotherhood that they smuggled weapons to armed elements in the central cities of Hama and Homs as well as the northwestern province of Idlib and a Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city of Latakia.

He has previously appeared in videos calling on the army to stand by the people instead of the regime.

Tags AP, Avaaz, homs, Red Crescent
37 weeks 21 hours ago - Syria

This video, from reliable Syrian aggregator shamnewssnn, shows a bullet-ridden Red Crescent (IFRC) ambulance. The uploader says the ambulance was in the Bab Al-Dreeb neighborhood of Homs on September 7 and that all of the passengers on board were wounded.

Tags homs, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Red Crescent, shamnewssnn, Video

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