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Syria conflict: Rebels 'evacuating Old City of Homs' | Syria conflict: Rebels 'evacuating Old City of Homs' |
(35 minutes later) | |
The evacuation of rebels from their last stronghold in the Syrian city of Homs is under way, activists say. | The evacuation of rebels from their last stronghold in the Syrian city of Homs is under way, activists say. |
Within the past hour, buses have begun leaving the Old City under a deal brokered by the United Nations. | |
At least two buses have arrived in rebel-held territory to the north, carrying a number of armed fighters. | |
It marks the end of any rebel presence in the heart of the major city once dubbed the "capital of the revolution" against President Bashar al-Assad. | |
'World failed us' | |
The BBC's Paul Wood in Beirut says the rebel fighters and their families are sad and bitter as they say goodbye to a place they swore they would never leave. | |
They buckled finally, our correspondent adds, after two years of siege - the government's forces following a tactic of what some Syrian army officers called "surrender or starve". | |
The siege of the Old City was tightened in recent months with intense shelling and air strikes. | |
"The rest of the world failed us," one activist told the BBC by Skype as he prepared for the evacuation. | |
The deal was brokered by the UN - which is also supervising the buses now heading into the Old City - and was agreed only after many months of negotiation. | |
The deal reportedly also involves easing a siege of two predominantly Shia Muslim towns in the north loyal to President Assad. | |
Our correspondent says the armed groups within the Old City were deeply divided about whether to accept a ceasefire. | |
The al-Nusra Front, which is affiliated to al Qaeda, wanted to try to break the siege with a series of suicide bombings. It attempted to do this, but failed, and al-Nusra fighters will be on the evacuation buses too. | |
One more district of Homs is still holding out, al-Wair on the periphery. | |
But our correspondent says fighters there have accepted a ceasefire and will leave, too, as soon as arrangements are made. |