BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Aid workers failed to evacuate anyone from blockaded rebel-held neighbourhoods in the central Syrian city of Homs yesterday or deliver any food, increasing pressure on them to complete the ambitious humanitarian operation before a fragile truce expires, activists and Syrian Red Crescent officials said.

Over 1,000 civilians have already left the embattled districts, which have been under siege for 20 months by government forces and suffer from widespread hunger. The three-day truce that allowed the UN-Red Crescent operation was extended to six days, now expiring at midnight Wednesday.

But hundreds of civilians are still inside, and continued shelling and shooting between the two sides severely limited efforts.

Officials said yesterday that they allowed over 100 men of fighting age to leave Monday after they were questioned and cleared of rebel links, state media said. A UN spokesman however said that hundreds of others were held back for questioning, saying it was concerned for their welfare.

Yesterday’s delay was for technical reasons, said Khaled Erksoussi, the head of operations at the Syrian Red Crescent. He said meetings between UN and Syrian officials in the city took more time than expected, forcing them to postpone all their activities until today.

“There were no operations at all today. The UN and Red Crescent cars did not move,” Erksoussi said by telephone from Syria.