Evacuation of Last Rebel-Held District of Syria's Homs Begins
Hundreds of rebels and civilians began leaving the last opposition-held district of Syria's Homs on Saturday under a controversial deal that will bring the whole city under government control.
The Russian-supervised evacuation of Waer was agreed earlier this month and is expected to last several weeks.
The new agreement aims to finalise implementation of a "reconciliation deal" that has already seen several phases of rebel evacuation from Waer district, but which had stalled in recent months.
Russian troops and vehicles could be seen on Saturday morning just outside the Waer district as the first buses began to pull out, AFP's correspondent said.
According to the agreement, up to 100 Russian soldiers will deploy inside the neighbourhood to oversee the evacuation and ensure the safety of residents, including any who chose to stay.
The first wave of three green buses pulled out of Waer carrying dozens of fighters, their rifles slung over their soldiers, and civilians including children.
Between 400 and 500 people are expected to leave on Saturday, Syrian state television reported.
Rebels will be bussed to opposition-held parts of Homs province, the town of Jarabulus on the Syrian-Turkish border or the northwest province of Idlib.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group estimates that a total of 12,000 people, including 2,500 rebels, will leave under the deal.
Syria's government has agreed "reconciliation" deals in several rebel-held areas, and touts the local agreements that grant safe passage to surrendering fighters as key to ending the country's war.
But the opposition says it is forced into such deals by siege and bombardment.
Three waves of rebels and their families have already quit Waer under an agreement first reached in December 2015, but the deal has stalled since then.
Over the past month, government forces have stepped up bombardment of the district, killing dozens of people, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
And no aid has reached the area in at least four months, with a UN convoy that attempted to reach Waer in February seized by gunmen who diverted the assistance to a government-held area.
Completion of the Waer agreement will bring Homs city -- once known as the "capital of the revolution" -- under the full control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
7 years
and will be replaced by the heretics of wilayat al faqih
7 years
it has already started barrymore: "“Iran and the regime don’t want any Sunnis between Damascus and Homs and the Lebanese border,” said one senior Lebanese leader. “This represents a historic shift in populations.” Darkoush said whole neighbourhoods had been cleansed of their original inhabitants in Homs, and that many residents had been denied permission to return to their homes, with officials citing lack of proof that they had indeed lived there.
“The first step in the plan has been achieved,” he said. “It involved expelling the inhabitants of these areas and burning up anything which connects them to their land and homes. The second step will be replacing the original inhabitants with newcomers from Iraq and Lebanon.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/13/irans-syria-project-pushing-population-shifts-to-increase-influence
they are no better than israel.....
7 years
Mini ... You mean freed from its Sunni population who used to be the overwhelming majority of its population.
7 years
How sweet victory is, the fall of the salafi.
7 years
Yes Mystic... you're a brave hero...lol...
7 years
What we said from the beginning, became reality.
Whilst your Salafi Daesh dreams of Assads fall failed.
We won you lost.
7 years
miss tic says "he" won... what did the syrian regime win?
chaos in the country
a country divided
5 million syrian fled
6 million syrians displaced from their homes
assad now the puppet of poutine and khamenei without them he would be lost
100 000 syrian soldiers killed out of an army of 300 000
warlords ruling the country
stealing of sunni homes replaced by chias from iraq and lebanon
economy under iranian perfusion
syria lira with no more value
sure it is a divine victory according to hezbi standards! a king without a kingdom now rules syria! waw! what an achievement!
7 years
Mystic ... You won? Perhaps this battle but at the end you will lose and the Assad regime will disappear and the people of Homs will go back to their homes.
7 years
Peace ... Mystic and his ilk thinks that subjugating the Syrian people and especially the Sunna is victory. He does not see anything wrong with millions of Sunnis driven from their home. For him, the only good Sunnis are the subjugated Sunnis
7 years
If the so called Sunnis focused more on their sunni brethren of Palestine, then there wouldn't have been a war between all these sects.
But you played right into Israels hands by following Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Weaklings and cowards, now you make Salah to Trump.
7 years
and once again when the truth hurts miss tic he deflects the subject rather than addressing it... what does palestine have to do with homs? LOL
a real coward woman he is....
7 years
Do not play victim here, I am not Saudi owned Amnesty or Human rights watch, I could care less about the Salafis suffering.
You brought this upon yourselves by aiding Israel and Turkish/Qatar Saudi Arabia ambitions.
Also our neighbourhoods were bombed many times in Beirut, yet you still whine about one Incident in Tripoli and laugh when we die.
Do not cry when you laugh yourselves when others die.
Expect no mercy, just because you lost. Your roots will be cut off too and everything else you stand for.
Salafism/Wahabism is also a weak religion and ideology, they follow Yazid whom actively seeked Jewish gold and diamonds and slaughtered the prophets family.
7 years
poor FT... why don't you address the issue instead of insulting people not even talking to you? frustrated? no friends? sexual issues? or all of them....
get lost now and go to bed kiddo
7 years
truth hurst those hezbo lovers like miss tic and brainless FT... when they cannot answer they either deflect the issue like miss tic or insult like FT...
symptomatic of mentally retarded people...
7 years
Poor Mystic ... A brainwashed little troll that thinks that the people in Syria should live under a monstrous dictator. His little brain would have us believe that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are Saudi Owned.
And yet again he displays his disdain and hatred of Sunnis calling them weakling and justifies the mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing it befell them because they revolted against a modern day Yazid. Actually, my apologies to Yazid as his crimes paled in comparison to Assad.
7 years
And at least, we know where Mystic hatred come from. He is still fighting a a battle for power between two branches of the same Meccan family! And simpleton Mystic, if you think most Sunnis love Yazid and do not love Hussein and Hassan, then you are brainwashed beyond hope.
7 years
And at least, we know where Mystic hatred come from. He is still fighting a a battle for power between two branches of the same Meccan family! And simpleton Mystic, if you think most Sunnis love Yazid and do not love Hussein and Hassan, then you are brainwashed beyond hope.
7 years
Assad is a good man, he stood his ground even when he was about to collapse, instead of seeking exile in Russia.
Most Syrians are still backing Assad, and that means the Sunnis.
They still live in Assad controlled areas.
Yes Salafidemocrat, I can see you are one of those people that try to put Wahabism and Sunnis in the same category, but we do not.
If Wahabism and Salafism is destroyed, then there would've been a muslim unity today.
7 years
You have not studied hard enough about Yazids atrocities.
That is why I can not stand your kind, you belittle all the suffering done to the prophets family.
Al Saud family makes it worse and destroys all memories tombs and graves from those times.
7 years
your war in syria is not about salafis or wahabis it is all about al jafr... you beleive its predictions are on its way...
you are as fanatic as salafis are, different sect different style that is all! LOL
7 years
Mystic ... You are seriously a delusional person who is beyond repair. Anyone that thinks of Assad as good has lost his marbles. This is a man that is responsible for tens of thousands of executions and the killing of hundreds of thousands in order to maintain power.
And for anyone reading your previous posts on this article, it is clear you are talking about Sunnis and not Salafists. And no if all disappeared, there would not be peace. The Crux of the problem is Iran expansionist policy, the sectarian militias it breeds and in Syria, a monstrous regime. Add to that, you stone age ideology that is built on a toxic mix of myth, victimization and hatred.
7 years
And besides Mystic, I know much more than you about the history of the world. What Yazid did was not exceptional in any way. He is but one among thousands of brutal dictators that did not tolerate any challenge to their power. And besides, that was 1400 years ago
Get over it. Assad did much much worse and you defend him.
7 years
And besides Mystic, I know much more than you about the history of the world. What Yazid did was not exceptional in any way. He is but one among thousands of brutal dictators that did not tolerate any challenge to their power. And besides, that was 1400 years ago
Get over it. Assad did much much worse and you defend him.
7 years
One Giga Troll and a Half spotted
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7 years
One spambot reported.
7 years
Lucky they have a reconciliation deal! If the government soldiers lost... what would have been their options? Beheading or live cage burning? Maybe their hearts for an entree?
7 years
No... anyone talking to prince Bandar after the Volgograd railway station bombing? President Putin was very clear who will be held responsible... hear anything gig.minteik?
7 years
No... anyone talking to prince Bandar after the Volgograd railway station bombing? President Putin was very clear who will be held responsible... hear anything gig.minteik?
Soon Homs will be freed from the Wahhabite plague.