Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said armed groups were preventing women and children from leaving the besieged area of Homs.

„I have been personally involved over the past two years to get these women and children out of the Old City of Homs… In all these attempts we have been prevented by the armed groups, who did not allow a single person out,“ Mekdad stated.

Militants operating in Homs called for a complete end to the siege of the areas, which have been under a blockade since June 2012.