Syrian rebels, families begin leaving Homs district in deal with government

[March 18, 2017]  By Ellen Francis

HOMS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels and their families began leaving their last bastion in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday, state media and a Reuters witness said, under a Russian-backed deal with the government expected to be among the largest evacuations of its kind.

The first few buses drove out of al-Waer district in Homs, which was an early center of the popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 rebels and civilians would evacuate in batches over the coming weeks under the deal, according to opposition activists in al-Waer and a war monitor.

The agreement underlines Assad's upper hand in the war, as more rebel fighters opt to leave areas they have defended for years in deals that amount to negotiated withdrawals to other parts of the country.

The Syrian government has described such deals as a "workable model" that brings the country closer to peace after six years of conflict. But the opposition decries them as a tactic of forcibly displacing people who oppose Assad after years of bombardment and siege.

Homs governor Talal Barazi told Reuters he expected around 1,500 people, including at least 400 fighters, to depart on Saturday for rebel-held areas northeast of Aleppo city.

Along with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), Russian and Syrian forces were overseeing the evacuation, which would take about six weeks, he said.

"The preparations and the reality on the ground indicate that things will go well," Barazi said.

"We are optimistic that the full exit of armed (fighters) from this district will pave the way for other reconciliations and settlements," he added.

The government has increasingly tried to press besieged rebel areas to surrender and accept what it calls reconciliation agreements that involve fighters departing for northern Syria.

In an interview with Chinese TV station Phoenix last week, Assad said deals brokered locally with rebels were "the real political solutions". He added that he had not expected anything from Geneva, where U.N.-led peace talks ended this month with no breakthrough.

Broadcasting live from the al-Waer departure area, Syrian state television spoke to a Russian soldier, who said via an interpreter that security would soon return to the district.

"This agreement was reached only under the patronage of the Russian side ... and it will be implemented with Russian guarantees," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the buses would go to the Jarablus area in the north, held by Turkey-backed rebels.

Once completed, it would mark the biggest evacuation during the war out of one Syrian district, which is home to about 40,000 civilians and more than 2,500 fighters, the monitoring group said.

A rebel fighter walks with his weapon past a Syrian security personnel towards a bus to evacuate the besieged Waer district in the central Syrian city of Homs, after an agreement reached between rebels and Syria's army, Syria March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Dozens of buses stood at a crossing waiting to leave al-Waer, accompanied by SARC ambulances, a Reuters witness said.

Police officers searched people before the buses drove out, the Homs police chief told Syrian state television, which said 11 buses had left so far.

In the coming weeks, evacuees could be shuttled to other rebel-held areas in northern Syria, including the insurgent stronghold of Idlib province, state TV said.

Under the agreement, fighters could stay in al-Waer if they settle their affairs with the government, it said.

The deal follows others that were never fully implemented between the government and rebel groups in al-Waer, which has been pounded by air strikes in recent weeks.

A few hundred rebels from the district have previously been allowed safe passage to Idlib in the northwest.

Rebels and civilians who fear Assad's rule have poured into Idlib at an accelerating rate over the last year, bussed out of other parts of western Syria that the government and allied forces recaptured from rebels.

Rebel groups have been on the back foot in Syria, following Russia's intervention into the war on Assad's side, bringing its air power to bear in support of his army and its Iranian and Shi'ite militia allies.
 

The wide array of mostly Sunni rebel factions includes some jihadists as well as some groups supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf monarchies.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut; Additional reporting by Marwan Makdisi in Homs; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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