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Syrian rebels begin Homs evacuation Syrian rebels begin Homs evacuation
(about 4 hours later)
Two thousand rebels and civilians are to begin leaving besieged opposition-held districts of Homs city in central Syria on Wednesday under a deal between fighters and the government. Opposition fighters in the Old City of Homs have started withdrawing from their positions, as part of a deal with Syrian forces that will mean all but one part of the the 'capital of the revolution' is now in regime hands.
Activists on the ground said two buses arrived in Homs early in the morning to begin the first of the evacuations. Injured people who have been trapped in the Old City and surrounding areas for nearly two years under a tight government siege are to be the first to leave. The withdrawal comes five days after a ceasefire brokered between both sides that compels opposition fighters and their famiies to leave the area. Local officials said 120 people had so far boarded a fleet of buses sent to take them to another part of Homs. A total of 1,800 fighters are scheduled to leave, in a move that will all but mark the end of the insurrection in Syria's third city.
Under the deal, negotiated with the assistance of Iran's ambassador to Damascus, the group will be taken to an opposition-held area in the north of Homs province, according to a rebel negotiator. The deal allows rebels to carry light weapons and, according to reports from the scene, one rocket-propelled grenade each. It also allows food to reach beseiged residents.
Fighters will be allowed to withdraw with light weapons, and one rocket launcher will be permitted on every bus used for the evacuation. The deal will be guaranteed by the United Nations and Iran. The ceasefire is part of a pattern of such deals implemented between both sides in other parts of Syria in recent months. Fighters in Homs had been due to leave the Old City on Saturday, but had delayed their exit seeking extra assurances that they would not face arrest at checkpoints.
The Homs governor, Talal al-Barazi, said last-minute preparations were still being made but the operation "will take place today, God willing". Another UN-brokered ceasefire earlier this year led to scores of rebels and male residents of fighting age being detained as soon as they reached regime positions. Western officials in Beirut say they have no information about the men's whereabouts.
The deal was reached as part of an exchange for an unknown number of hostages being held by rebels in the northern city of Aleppo. Opposition fighters will also allow aid into two Shia-majority towns, Nubol and Zahraa, which are under rebel siege. Only the Waer district of Homs remains in opposition hands, and a separate ceasefire there is soon likely to replicate the Homs exodus. With the fall of Homs imminent, the opposition to Bashar al-Assad poses an ever-diminishing threat in the western stretch of Syria from Tartous to Damascus, which is seen as the strategic heartland of the country.
On Tuesday, UN workers cleared roads of landmines in preparation for the withdrawal. Regime forces are firmly in control of almost all of that strip after Hezbollah, supported by Syrian units, first took the Sunni town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last May. Since then, Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia, Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas, homefront paramilitaries, the National Defence Front, and the Syrian military have won control of a mountain range north-west of Damascus, which gives them a clear path from the capital to Homs.
The evacuated areas will be turned over to the government, which will then have control of all but one major area of Homs, once considered the capital of the revolution. The district of Waer will remain under opposition control, but negotiations are under way for a similar deal to that being implemented in the Old City. The gains have in part been offset by opposition advances near the Jordanian border and north of Latakia, near the border with Turkey. However, more than three years into the civil war, myriad oppositon groups have yet to pose a coherent threat to the ever-more organised Syrian regime and its backers.
The Old City and surrounding rebel-held areas have been under government siege for nearly two years. This year, about 1,400 people were evacuated from the districts under a UN and Red Crescent operation. But a group of fighters and civilians, including those with injuries who were unable to reach evacuation points, remained behind. They faced increasingly tough conditions, with little food or medicine and the start of a government offensive to try to retake the areas. "It is difficult to imagine how the opposition could advance from here," one Beirut-based senior western official said. "Stalemate is as best as they can hope for."
More than 150,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011. Homs and other opposition strongholds have been battered into submission by months of sustained artillery and air assaults that have gradually reduced the number of neighbourhoods they control. Sieges have also been imposed, starving residents that have remained behind and gradually ebbing the will to fight. More than 2,500 rebels have been killed in Homs, local activists say, and many thousands more wounded, or forced to flee. Much of the city's historic quarter has been levelled and many neighbourhoods lie in ruins.
"This is a day that we thought would never come," said one activist from a nearby district. "We had fought so hard and for so long, but no one came to help us. We were left to ourselves."