syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in homs
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in Homs

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in Homs

Syrian opposition fighters and their families are searched as they arrive at a checkpoint,
Homs - Arab today

Scores of Syrian opposition fighters and their families began leaving the last rebel-held neighbourhood in the central city of Homs on Saturday as part of a Russian-backed evacuation deal signed earlier this week.

By midday around 100 fighters and their families had left the city, once known as the epicentre of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Al Assad. They were bound for a town on the Turkish border after the latest in a series of local agreements in which insurgents have relocated to the rebel-held north after months or years under siege in the country’s major cities.

Green government buses ferried the fighters, who were carrying assault rifles, and their families from the northern Al Waer neighbourhood to Homs’ western entrance, where they disembarked and had some of their bags searched under the supervision of Syrian and Russian military police. Three fighters arrived in wheelchairs.

The men, women and children, most of them carrying their belongings in suitcases and plastic bags, then boarded white busses that were to take them to the northern rebel-held town of Jarabulus on the border with Turkey. The evacuees were assisted by Syrian Arab Red Crescent members as they put their belongings in the busses.

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. Up to 2,000 people, including more than 400 fighters, will be evacuated on Saturday alone, he said.

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 that was issued earlier.

Some opposition activists have criticised 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.

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.

Once the evacuation is completed, the government will be in full control of the city — 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 Al 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

source : gulfnews

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in homs syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in homs

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in homs syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged neighbourhood in homs

 



GMT 04:22 2017 Tuesday ,26 December

Israel in touch with '10 countries' over embassy moves

GMT 19:43 2017 Friday ,06 October

Employee safety top priority at Khalifa Port

GMT 16:19 2017 Friday ,28 April

ISIS Suspect Arrested in Western Germany

GMT 12:57 2017 Monday ,11 December

50 Students Poisoned by Contaminated Well Water

GMT 16:31 2017 Thursday ,10 August

Palestinians will discuss decline of aids

GMT 21:15 2017 Saturday ,04 March

Obama never ordered surveillance on any US citizen

GMT 10:00 2017 Thursday ,09 March

Russia ‘can be good friends with GCC’

GMT 02:13 2017 Wednesday ,22 February

Russian helicopter crash kills 19 in Siberia

GMT 13:23 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

Lebanon PM Hariri rescinds resignation

GMT 00:39 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

Gunmen kill cleric in Aden, southern Yemen

GMT 11:43 2016 Thursday ,24 November

Will learn from Euro exit

GMT 06:56 2017 Tuesday ,17 October

US ‘not taking sides’ between Iraqi forces, Kurds

GMT 19:59 2017 Thursday ,16 February

Syrian opposition's chief negotiator arrives in Astana

GMT 15:41 2017 Thursday ,29 June

US sets new visa rules for 6 mainly Muslim nations

GMT 19:31 2017 Saturday ,11 February

Earthquake Hits Taiwan

GMT 15:30 2017 Monday ,27 November

Syrian government will not join peace talks on Monday

GMT 16:20 2017 Tuesday ,31 October

La Rochelle survive red card to down Toulouse

GMT 20:33 2018 Tuesday ,16 January

Bahraini official receives UAE Ambassador

GMT 22:40 2018 Monday ,08 January

Bahrain to host first Baby Games
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday