Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged Homs

The al-Waer neighbourhood is home to about 75,000 people and has been under a government siege since 2013, triggering shortages of medicine, and occasionally of food. The evacuation is the third phase of an agreement reached last year that saw hundreds of fighters and their families leave the area.

Homs Governor Talal Barrazi said around 1,500 fighters are expected to leave al-Waer, with only their personal rifles, over the next six to eight weeks.

Once the first batch has left, food and basic aid will enter the neighbourhood, Barrazi said. He had said earlier this week that fighters who decide to stay in al-Waer can benefit from a government amnesty issued earlier.

An official at the governor’s office said later Saturday that 344 fighters and about 1,050 civilians were headed to Jarablous aboard 35 buses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Some opposition activists have criticized the agreement, saying it aims to displace 12,000 al-Waer residents, including 2,500 fighters. The opposition’s Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the evacuees “internally displaced” people.

Al-Barrazi denied statements that said al-Waer residents are being forced to leave their homes, adding that thousands will stay on and many departing because of violence will return in the future.

Maher Kayyal, the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s operations in Homs, said they were informed of three medical emergency cases, adding that the number might rise to six. Ten ambulances were available at the scene.

“There are no difficulties so far as all parties respect the agreement,” he said earlier in the day.

Once the evacuation is completed, the government will be in full control of Homs — Syria’s third largest — for the first time in years.

In the early days of the uprising, the city saw huge, peaceful demonstrations against the Assad family’s four-decade rule. Those and other protests were met with a fierce government crackdown that led to the rise of an armed insurgency. At one point, the rebels controlled much of the city, but government forces gradually regained control.

The civil war, which entered its seventh year earlier this month, has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced more than half the country’s population.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.

Albert Aji And Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged Homs

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