HOMS // Hundreds of civilians and Syrian rebel forces began leaving the last opposition-held district in the central city of Homs yesterday under a deal with the government, the provincial governor said.
“The first people have left the district of Waer and the second group will leave soon,” Talal Barazi said.
Mr Barazi said about 700 people – including 400 women and children and 300 fighters – would be moved out of the district yesterday, after a deal reached earlier this month between rebel forces and Syrian president Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
Just outside the district, dozens of women and children boarded eight large white buses, as white SUVs belonging to the United Nations waited nearby.
Under the deal 2,000 rebels and their families leave the besieged neighbourhood of Homs city, once dubbed “the capital of the revolution”.
“We are implementing the first stage, which will be complete at the end of next week,” Mr Barazi said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said 500 people were on the first convoy out of the city in the early hours of yesterday.
“Eleven buses have left the city, including the first bus of fighters,” he said.
He said residents began gathering at “4am (6am UAE) in the streets, waiting to leave the city.”
Buses will head from Homs city to the Qalaat Al Madiq area of central Hama province, then onto the northwestern province of Idlib.
Idlib province is held by the Army of Conquest rebel alliance, which includes Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front and which would send some of its forces to escort the buses, according to Mr Rahman.
Earlier this month, Mr Barazi said all rebels would leave Waer within two months, in return for the regime lifting its siege of the district and ending military operations there.
Government police – but not troops – will then re-enter the area.
* Agence France-Presse
