Humanitarian Aid Finally Arrives in Baba Amr

On the heels of U.N. Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos's visit, the Syrian Red Crescent entered the devastated Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Wednesday.

On the heels of U.N. Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos's visit, the Syrian Red Crescent entered the devastated Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Wednesday. For now at least, the Red Crescent's entry will hopefully put an end to the very troubling and conflicting stories coming from the sequestered neighborhood. The International Red Cross tweeted shortly after 9:30 a.m.:

A #RedCrescent team have entered #BabaAmr, #Syria while other teams have provided assistance in #Abel.

— ICRC in English (@icrc_english) March 7, 2012

Officially, an ICRC spokesman also confirmed the Red Crescent's access in a Reuters report.  As we had mentioned earlier, the Red Cross and humanitarian aid agencies had been denied access to Homs, as Bashar al-Assad's regime claimed it was still cleaning up mines and defusing explosives. On the other hand, refugees claimed that Syrian forces were blocking the Red Cross' entry because they were slaughtering civilians left behind. Whichever side you believe, it's unlikely (thankfully if it is the latter) that either of those scenarios can continue with third-party observers, aid workers like the Red Crescent, and Valerie Amos's presence in the area. The BBC reports that they're still waiting from an official statement from Amos and the Red Crescent about the situation, but they do know that the Amos spent an hour in Baba Amr surveying "its humanitarian needs."  As The Guardian notes, at this early stage, it's still unclear what kind of aid is being provided.