English
Non-Isil rebels withdrew from the last part of the city of Homs they controlled under a ceasefire deal brokered with the Syrian regime on Wednesday.
Regime troops had surrounded the district of Waer for three years, and hundreds of fighters and civilians were ferried out in buses rather than face continued starvation and fighting or a return to regime rule.
Among the fighters were members of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. The evacuation was monitored by the United Nations and the Red Crescent.
The deal, which mirrors one in the other main rebel-held part of the city in April last year, leaves the regime in full control.
However, it is facing a new threat with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) holding much of the eastern part of Homs province. The pull-out from Waer will be completed over the coming week.
In Homs, once Syria’s third-largest city and a centre of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, there was bitterness and tears as a first group of civilians and insurgents evacuated. A three-year blockade by government forces in the civil war has inflicted untold hardship on those inside.
“This is not a surrender, this deal is a result of three years of siege that has led to a human catastrophe in Waer,” said opposition activist Mohammad Sbai, speaking via Skype from the shattered neighborhood.
Among the rebels who left are hard-line insurgents and members of the al-Qaeda branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, who chose to leave rather than stay and cooperate with Syrian authorities on a prolonged truce.
Talal Barazzi, the governor of Homs, told The Associated Press on the outskirts of Waer that 272 gunmen and 447 civilians left on Wednesday. A second and final group of rebels will leave in the coming weeks, he said, without elaborating.
Once the evacuation is complete, Homs will return to full government control. The deal comes amid Syrian army offensives in central and northern parts of the country, supported by Russian air strikes that have improved the position of Assad’s forces.
UN and Red Crescent officials were on hand to oversee implementation of the deal. An AP crew saw gunmen civilian boarding buses, their faces covered with scarves to avoid identification. The windows were curtained, but several of the men could be seen peeking out. Some gave the thumbs-up sign.
In one of the buses, a man grinned and waved from a window seat, and a little girl sitting behind him also waved. At least one person missing a leg walked on crutches and was helped onto a bus by paramedics.
The convoy of at least 10 white buses of civilians and seven green buses of gunmen then left Waer. A UN vehicle and Syrian army pickup truck mounted with a machine gun drove in between each civilian bus, while UN and Red Crescent vehicles bracketed each bus of rebel fighters.
“With this agreement, Homs will now be a safe place free of weapons and gunmen,” Mr Barazzi said.
The Waer deal is similar to one struck in May 2014 in Homs’ Old City. There, the government took control of the quarter after about 2,000 rebels were granted safe passage to opposition areas north of the city. The area was destroyed and thousands of civilians were killed or forced to flee, and rebels surrendered only after they were starved and outgunned.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk