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Syrian Rebels Leave Last Opposition District In Homs


Syrian evacuees from Waer, the last opposition-held district Homs, arrive in the city of Al-Bab in northern Aleppo Province on April 18.
Syrian evacuees from Waer, the last opposition-held district Homs, arrive in the city of Al-Bab in northern Aleppo Province on April 18.

Hundreds of Syrian rebels and their families left the last opposition-held district of Homs on May 21, completing a deal that has brought the city under full government control.

Some 700 fighters and their families, totaling nearly 3,000 people, have left the district of Waer in the past two days on buses in the final phase of the evacuation.

Homs, which was once the center of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, was besieged by government forces for four years.

Thousands of rebels and their families have left areas in western Syria in recent months in deals with the government. Assad now controls Syria’s main cities.

The opposition has criticized the deals as forced displacement, often after months or years of siege and bombardment by government forces.

Evacuees have mostly left for rebel-controlled Idlib Province or for Jarablus, a town along Syria's border with Turkey.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

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