The International Committee of the Red Cross says medical supplies and humanitarian aid have reached the battered city of Homs and will soon be taken to the Baba Amr neighborhood.
An ICRC spokesperson said Friday that a convoy of seven trucks carrying aid would enter Baba Amr, a district of Homs where rebels and citizens have been under siege by government forces for nearly a month.
The delivery comes as activists say the increasingly dire humanitarian situation led to the "tactical retreat" of opposition forces on Thursday. Activists say the city's water supply has been cut off and that food, medicine and electricity are scarce.
The United Nations' human rights office announced Friday it has received unconfirmed reports that 17 executions took place in Baba Amr on Thursday.
A spokesman ((Rupert Colville)) for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the global body is appealing to Syrian authorities and the opposition to prevent unlawful reprisals, torture and arbitrary detentions following this "particularly grizzly set of summary executions."