Rebels, Families Quit Syria's Homs Under Govt Deal
Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmir) Published September 26, 2016 | 08:45 PM
DAMASCUS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -26th Sep,2016) : More than 130 rebels and their families were bussed out of the last rebel-held district in Syria's Homs on Monday, the third such evacuation from the city since last year.
A source from the Homs governorate told AFP that 131 rebels, in addition to 119 family members, quit Waer district for Dar al-Kubra, an opposition-held area in the northern parts of Homs province.
"We will continue evacuating armed men from the neighbourhood. The process will be finished in the next few weeks," Homs governor Talal Barazi told Syrian state television. Families were seen carrying luggage onto large green buses with the help of Syrian Red Crescent volunteers, as army soldiers looked on.
Monday's was the third evacuation since rebel groups, worn down by a three-year government siege, struck a deal with Damascus to leave the district. The agreement was reached in December and will eventually see Waer come under full government control.
Homs was once dubbed the "capital of the revolution" because of the large-scale protests held there when the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.
An estimated 600,000 people live under siege across Syria, according to the United Nations.
On Monday, the UN's World Food Programme said it delivered life-saving food aid to civilians in four besieged towns in Syria for the first time since April. Madaya and Zabadani, near Damascus, are encircled by government forces while Fuaa and Kafraya in the northwest are besieged by hardline rebels.
The aid deliveries took place on Sunday and saw 53 trucks enter Madaya and Zabadani, with another 18 to Fuaa and Kafraya, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross. But WFP's country director in Syria said concerns were still high for the estimate 250,000 residents of eastern districts of Aleppo city, besieged by government troops since early this month.
"We call on all parties to this terrible conflict to immediately open transport routes that allow unconditional, unimpeded, sustained and safe humanitarian access to those in eastern Aleppo and every family across Syria that needs our support," Jakob Kern said.
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