Syria Conflict
Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:24:12
Syrian rebels began evacuating the last opposition-held district in Homs on Wednesday, paving the way for President Bashar al-Assad’s government to take full control of the country’s third-largest city.
Hundreds of Syria rebels were leaving the Waer district under a rare local ceasefire agreed with the Syrian government at the start of December.
Some 2,000 rebels and their families will abandon Waer in Homs to travel to other opposition-held areas, after enduring a three-year siege that saw the district heavily shelled.
The evacuation comes as a broad range of Syrian opposition groups, including armed factions, hold unprecedented talks in the Saudi capital on forming a united front for talks with President Assad.
The talks follow a major diplomatic push to resolve Syria’s nearly five-year civil war, and intensified foreign military action including Russia’s first strikes from a submarine Tuesday.
More than 100 opposition fighters, some carrying light weapons, boarded five green buses further away.
Provincial Governor Talal Barazi told reporters that some 700 people would be evacuated from the district Wednesday.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the buses headed to the northwestern province of Idlib. AFP reported.
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