Hundreds of Syrian civilians and rebels began pulling out of the last opposition-held neighbourhood of the city of Homs today as part of a local deal with government forces that would return the entire central city to government control.
A few thousand insurgents have been holed up in Waer district, which government forces had blockaded for nearly three years, only sporadically allowing in food.
The governor of Homs, Talal Barazzi, told The Associated Press on the outskirts of Waer that at least 272 gunmen and 447 civilians left the district today in an evacuation process that was presided over by the United Nations.
Once the evacuation is completed, the city of Homs, once dubbed as "the capital of the revolution," will fully return to government control.
UN and Red Crescent officials were on hand today to oversee implementation of the deal, which saw the gunmen transported to areas further north in Hama and Idlib province.
They insurgents included members of the al-Qaida branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and an array of extremist and more moderate rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
Also, several wounded civilians were loaded into ambulances waiting just outside the district.
Journalists were not allowed to approach the civilians and gunmen as they left Waer. An AP reporter saw gunmen getting into buses from a distance, their faces covered with scarves to avoid identification. The bus windows were covered with cloth. A gunman with a light beard wearing a black jacket could be seen at the front of one of the buses.
At least one person with a prosthetic leg walking on crutches got into a waiting bus.
The convoy of at least 10 white buses carrying civilians and seven green buses carrying gunmen then left Waer. A U.N. vehicle and Syrian army pickup truck mounted with a machinegun drove in between each bus carrying civilians, while U.N. And Red Crescent vehicles bracketed each bus carrying rebel fighters.
"With this agreement, Homs will now be a safe place free of weapons and gunmen," said Barazzi, the Homs governor.
The truce deal also stipulates that the government in Damascus release an unspecified number of prisoners from Syrian jails, in addition to the release of some civilians and militants who were kidnapped by the gunmen in Waer.
The Waer deal is similar to one struck in May 2014 in Homs' Old City. There, the government assumed control of the quarter after about 2,000 rebels were granted safe passage to opposition areas north of Homs. The area was destroyed and thousands of civilians were killed or forced to flee, and rebels surrendered only after they were starved and outgunned.
