Rebels leave Homs under cease-fire deal

BEIRUT – Exhausted and worn out from a yearlong siege, hundreds of Syrian rebels on Wednesday left their last remaining bastions in the heart of the central city of Homs under a cease-fire deal with government forces.

The exit of some 1,200 fighters and civilians will mark a de facto end of the rebellion in the battered city, which was one of the first places to rise up against President Bashar Assad’s rule, earning it the nickname of “capital of the revolution.”

Gaining full control of Syria’s third-largest city is a major win for Assad on multiple levels. Militarily, it solidifies the government hold on a swath of territory in central Syria, linking the capital Damascus with government strongholds along the coast and giving a staging ground to advance against rebel territory further north. Politically, gains on the ground boost Assad’s hold on power as he seeks to add a further claim of legitimacy in presidential elections set for June 3.

By early Wednesday evening, around 600 fighters had boarded several batches of buses that departed from a police command center on the edge of Homs’ rebel-held areas, heading north, opposition activists said. Many of the rebels were wounded, and it was unclear how many civilians were among them.

An activist who goes by the name of Abu Yassin al-Homsi said all fighters and any remaining civilians would leave the city by the end of the day. According to the deal, the rebels were being taken a few miles north to the rebel-held towns of Talbiseh and al-Dar al-Kabira on the northern edge of Homs province – a short drive away.