217 Civilians Evacuated from Homs while Activists in Fear Arrest if They Leave

More than 200 civilians were evacuated Wednesday from besieged rebel-held districts in the heart of Syria's third city Homs, governor Talal al-Barazi told Agence France Presse.

"Two hundred and seventeen civilians have been evacuated today from Homs Old City. The operation went well and smoothly," Barazi said.

The latest evacuations bring the total number of people given safe passage out of the war-ravaged districts to more than 1,400 since Friday.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists holed up in Homs say they fear being arrested if they leave after hundreds of men were detained by authorities as they exited the city.

"There are some 60 activists in the besieged areas. Some of them want to leave, but will only do so if there are guarantees for their safety," said Yazan, an activist who withheld his full name for fear of retribution.

"Our fate (as besieged opponents) is unknown. Activists who want to leave and go to a safe place need to be given guarantees," he told AFP via the Internet.

A U.N.-supervised operation to distribute aid and evacuate civilians from a handful of rebel neighborhoods in the heart of Syria's third city began on Friday.

The deal between rebels and the regime allowing the evacuation made no mention of whether military-age men could leave, and more than 300 male evacuees aged 15 and 55 who been detained by authorities while exiting Homs.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday that 336 of them have been taken for questioning by the authorities in a U.N.-supervised site.

So far, some 42 have been released, but activist Abu Bilal says he fears they will be re-arrested in future.

"They have been given identity papers instead of their ID cards. I fear that they will be arrested again once the U.N. operation is over," said Abu Bilal, who is in touch with some of the evacuees.

"People are free to leave, but what they are doing is surrendering themselves to the regime. I would rather stay here and eat herbs than hand myself in."

An estimated 3,000 people have been trapped in rebel-held districts under army siege in Homs's Old City for more than 18 months.

Once dubbed "the capital of the revolution", Homs attracted activists from all over the country.

Those who remain in the rebel neighborhoods have for months been reduced to eating olives and herbs to survive as food supplies dwindled under the siege.

Syria's revolt began as a peaceful movement for political change, but morphed into an armed insurgency after President Bashar Assad's regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent.

The authorities have systematically blamed all violence in Syria on "terrorists," a term it uses to brand both rebels and peaceful opponents.