Updated at 1:10 pm: Around 270 Syrian rebels who were granted safe exit under a complex deal with President Bashar al-Assad's forces are being held in Homs by the army after insurgents elsewhere failed to uphold their side of the agreement, Syrian officials said on Friday.
More than 1,000 rebel fighters have left the Old City of Homs under the unprecedented negotiated evacuation that began Wednesday, according to figures given to AFP by provincial governor Talal Barazi.
Barazi earlier said more than 200 fighters had been evacuated Thursday, in addition to 980 people, mostly rebels but including some women and children, bussed out of the Old City on Wednesday.
He said the fighters and some civilians evacuated with them were bussed out to the opposition-held town of Dar al-Kabira, 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of Homs.
Officials said rebels had also agreed to allow aid into two northern towns besieged by the opposition, Nubl and al-Zahraa, but as of Friday a convoy of food and medical relief was stuck at insurgent checkpoints outside the towns.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the remaining 270 rebels will only be let out of Homs when the aid reaches Nubl and Zahraa.
They did not specify which groups had prevented the relief from entering. Activists said Syria's al-Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front, blocked aid convoys to Nubl and Zahraa on Wednesday, but other armed rebels are also active in the area.
The fall of Syria's third largest city to government forces is a major blow to the opposition and a boost for Assad, weeks before his likely re-election.
Rebel fighters hit back in the historic heart of Aleppo, blowing up a luxury hotel-turned-army position after tunneling under the front line which divides the main city of northern Syria.
At least 14 soldiers were killed in the explosion and its aftermath, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The pullout, following an army siege of nearly two years, leaves the rebels confined to a single district on the outskirts of a city that what was once a bastion of the uprising.
Barazi said negotiations were well advanced for the rebels to leave that neighborhood too in the coming weeks.
Syrian army troops played football on the square housing Homs' landmark clock tower, once the scene of the city's massive anti-government protests.
A soldier climbed onto the rooftop of a house and told AFP: "This is the first time I climb up here without fearing snipers."
"Come on, shoot me!" he called out to another soldier, who took a photograph of him.
It is not the first deal between the government and the rebels - a number of ceasefires have been agreed on the outskirts of Damascus.
But it is the first time that rebel fighters have withdrawn from an area they controlled under an accord with the government.
The Syrian government allowed the remaining rebels in Homs to pull out with their personal weapons in return for the release of 40 women and children, an Iranian woman and 30 soldiers held hostage by rebels elsewhere in Syria, a rebel spokesman said.
The Britain-based Observatory monitoring group confirmed that all the hostages had been released by Thursday afternoon.
The deal, in negotiations overseen by the ambassador of the Syrian regime's close ally Iran, also involved the distribution of aid into Nubol and Zahraa.
Abu Wissam, a rebel fighter being evacuated from the city center, bemoaned the outside interests now at play in a conflict that began as a protest movement.
"Now, everyone is moved like pawns in a chess game" between regional and international powers, he told AFP via the internet.
There have been many sieges imposed by both sides in the three-year-old conflict but that of the Old City of Homs has been by the far longest.
Insecurity in war-torn Syria is hampering the final stages of work to dismantle its chemical weapons arsenal, the UN official overseeing the task told reporters on Thursday.
In Aleppo, the rebel attack claimed by the massive Islamic Front alliance completely destroyed the Carlton Citadel Hotel, just across the road from the city's UNESCO-listed Citadel, which the army had been using as a frontline position.
A rebel offensive in July 2012 which saw them seize large swathes of Aleppo left the Citadel and nearby hotels - which once thronged with foreign tourists - on the front line of the deadly conflict.
(AFP, Reuters, Al-Akhbar)
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Syria militants block aid convoy near Aleppo
May 8, 2014, Press TV
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria have blocked a relief aid convoy from reaching two war-ravaged towns in the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo.
The militants from the notorious al-Nusra Front prevented the vehicles carrying humanitarian aid for the towns of Nubbul and al-Zahraa in Aleppo’s northern countryside on Wednesday.
The move violated a recent agreement with the Syrian government.
According to the accord, the foreign-backed militants had to withdraw from Homs and allow aid convoys to enter the two towns.
The militant elements of the al-Nusra Front also launched rockets at Nubbul and al-Zahraa, targeting civilians who had gathered to receive aid packages.
Meanwhile, the armed militants released 30 abducted Syrian army officers through Bustan in Aleppo as part of the agreement.
The accord was reached between the militants and the Syrian government on May 4.
More than 2,200 people, mostly militants, are supposed to evacuate the flashpoint city of Homs and move to militant-held areas in the north of Homs Province, located in the central western part of Syria. It would bring almost all the major districts of the city under the control of government forces. As part of the truce, the militants are to free about 70 government soldiers.
The evacuation is considered to be another victory for the Syrian army.
In recent months, the Syrian army has managed to liberate a number of cities and towns from militant control.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. According to some sources, around 140,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the violence fueled by the militants.
According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
Updated at 1:10 pm: Around 270 Syrian rebels who were granted safe exit under a complex deal with President Bashar al-Assad's forces are being held in Homs by the army after insurgents elsewhere failed to uphold their side of the agreement, Syrian officials said on Friday.
More than 1,000 rebel fighters have left the Old City of Homs under the unprecedented negotiated evacuation that began Wednesday, according to figures given to AFP by provincial governor Talal Barazi.
Barazi earlier said more than 200 fighters had been evacuated Thursday, in addition to 980 people, mostly rebels but including some women and children, bussed out of the Old City on Wednesday.
He said the fighters and some civilians evacuated with them were bussed out to the opposition-held town of Dar al-Kabira, 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of Homs.
Officials said rebels had also agreed to allow aid into two northern towns besieged by the opposition, Nubl and al-Zahraa, but as of Friday a convoy of food and medical relief was stuck at insurgent checkpoints outside the towns.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the remaining 270 rebels will only be let out of Homs when the aid reaches Nubl and Zahraa.
They did not specify which groups had prevented the relief from entering. Activists said Syria's al-Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front, blocked aid convoys to Nubl and Zahraa on Wednesday, but other armed rebels are also active in the area.
The fall of Syria's third largest city to government forces is a major blow to the opposition and a boost for Assad, weeks before his likely re-election.
Rebel fighters hit back in the historic heart of Aleppo, blowing up a luxury hotel-turned-army position after tunneling under the front line which divides the main city of northern Syria.
At least 14 soldiers were killed in the explosion and its aftermath, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The pullout, following an army siege of nearly two years, leaves the rebels confined to a single district on the outskirts of a city that what was once a bastion of the uprising.
Barazi said negotiations were well advanced for the rebels to leave that neighborhood too in the coming weeks.
Syrian army troops played football on the square housing Homs' landmark clock tower, once the scene of the city's massive anti-government protests.
A soldier climbed onto the rooftop of a house and told AFP: "This is the first time I climb up here without fearing snipers."
"Come on, shoot me!" he called out to another soldier, who took a photograph of him.
It is not the first deal between the government and the rebels - a number of ceasefires have been agreed on the outskirts of Damascus.
But it is the first time that rebel fighters have withdrawn from an area they controlled under an accord with the government.
The Syrian government allowed the remaining rebels in Homs to pull out with their personal weapons in return for the release of 40 women and children, an Iranian woman and 30 soldiers held hostage by rebels elsewhere in Syria, a rebel spokesman said.
The Britain-based Observatory monitoring group confirmed that all the hostages had been released by Thursday afternoon.
The deal, in negotiations overseen by the ambassador of the Syrian regime's close ally Iran, also involved the distribution of aid into Nubol and Zahraa.
Abu Wissam, a rebel fighter being evacuated from the city center, bemoaned the outside interests now at play in a conflict that began as a protest movement.
"Now, everyone is moved like pawns in a chess game" between regional and international powers, he told AFP via the internet.
There have been many sieges imposed by both sides in the three-year-old conflict but that of the Old City of Homs has been by the far longest.
Insecurity in war-torn Syria is hampering the final stages of work to dismantle its chemical weapons arsenal, the UN official overseeing the task told reporters on Thursday.
In Aleppo, the rebel attack claimed by the massive Islamic Front alliance completely destroyed the Carlton Citadel Hotel, just across the road from the city's UNESCO-listed Citadel, which the army had been using as a frontline position.
A rebel offensive in July 2012 which saw them seize large swathes of Aleppo left the Citadel and nearby hotels - which once thronged with foreign tourists - on the front line of the deadly conflict.
(AFP, Reuters, Al-Akhbar)
-------
Syria militants block aid convoy near Aleppo
May 8, 2014, Press TV
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria have blocked a relief aid convoy from reaching two war-ravaged towns in the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo.
The militants from the notorious al-Nusra Front prevented the vehicles carrying humanitarian aid for the towns of Nubbul and al-Zahraa in Aleppo’s northern countryside on Wednesday.
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