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Red Cross says it hopes to enter Baba Amro today

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was hopeful that its aid convoy would enter the shattered Baba Amro district of Homs on Sunday after days of talks with Syrian authorities.

"We have the green light, we hope to enter, we hope today is the day," said the Red Cross' Damascus-based spokesperson, Saleh Dabbakeh, declining to give further details about what he said were sensitive talks with Syrian officials.

"We are very concerned about the people in Baba Amro."

Civilians in the stricken district have struggled through a brutal, month-long siege in freezing conditions with little fuel, food and medical supplies.

A Red Cross convoy of seven trucks carrying relief supplies, joined by Red Crescent ambulances to evacuate the sick and wounded, has been stalled in Homs since arriving there on Friday.

The humanitarian organization said it had received the "green light" to enter Homs from Syrian authorities on Friday but was delayed by what Syrian forces on the ground said were security concerns.

Activists said they fear that the Red Cross is being kept out of Baba Amro to stop the agency from witnessing "massacres."

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