Over 80 people were evacuated from Syria's embattled Homs City Friday after having survived there for nearly two years, and more people are expected to leave under a three-day truce, a UN spokesperson said.
"The United Nations can confirm that 83 people were evacuated from Old Homs City today, during a three-day humanitarian pause agreed between the parties to the conflict," Xinhua quoted Farhan Haq, the acting deputy UN spokesperson as saying during a daily news briefing.
"The people -- women, children and the elderly -- were then delivered to places of their choice, escorted by (the) United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff," Haq said.
UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and UN emergency relief coordinator, Valerie Amos, welcomed Friday's operation as "a breakthrough, and a small but important step towards compliance with international humanitarian law", he said.