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Syria's 'Capital of the Revolution' Returns to Government Control Under a Rare Truce

Homs was a center of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al Assad. On Wednesday, the city was set to be back under full control of his troops as part of a UN-backed ceasefire.
Photo via STR/EPA

Hundreds of residents and rebels were being bussed out of the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, returning it to full government control, under a rare local ceasefire agreement.

The United Nations-backed ceasefire has been more than two years in the making and will see about 750 people leave during the day from the besieged neighborhood of Waer for rebel-held areas in the Hama and Idlib provinces.

Priority will be given to women, children and the severely wounded said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing sources on the ground. But the evacuation will also include scores of fighters and their weapons who reject the truce, he said, among them a small group from al Qaeda's Syria wing, the al Nusra Front.

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Homs became known as the "capital of the revolution" for being a center of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011. After a two-year government siege, a previous truce allowed insurgents to withdraw from the Old City.

Related: The Homs Ceasefire Is a Symbolic Blow to Syria's Rebels

Waer and other areas remained in the hands of insurgents, however. Food aid has reached Waer for the first time in nearly a year since the ceasefire came into force, said the BBC.

Some observers had criticized that previous agreement as an enforced surrender. SOHR said the Waer deal was better for the rebels this time because some fighters will stay in the district and the deal will be implemented in stages.

The deal was agreed directly between the Syrian sides. Some diplomats say local ceasefires between Syrians may be the most effective way of gradually bringing peace to a country where more than 250,000 people have been killed.

Syria peace talks involving world powers in Vienna in October called for a nationwide ceasefire and a renewal of UN-brokered talks between the rival Syrian sides. Saudi Arabia is convening an opposition conference this week as part of that process.

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