Syrian Rebels, Assad’s Forces Begin Cease-Fire in Homs

A cease-fire between Syrian rebels and the Assad regime took hold Wednesday in the last neighborhood under opposition control in the contested central city of Homs, activists and residents said.

The truce is part of a broader agreement reached Tuesday to allow rebels to withdraw from the Waer neighborhood and let some government institutions reopen, a final step toward re-establishing full government control of Homs.

Waer, home to thousands of civilians as well as various rebel groups, has been under siege for about two years and largely cut off from food, medicine and other staples.

Trucks carrying flour, sugar, oil and butter were brought into the neighborhood by merchants on Wednesday and more are expected in the coming days, residents said, the first food deliveries to reach the area in four months.

On Tuesday, Homs’s provincial governor, Talal al-Barazi, told the official Syrian Arab News Agency that an agreement had been reached for rebels to withdraw next week from Waer.

The withdrawal of rebels and their families is part of the first phase of returning the neighborhood to government control, he said, after more than three months of negotiations.

Waer is the last remaining rebel holdout in the mostly regime-controlled city, once called the capital of the Syrian revolution. It is populated by rebels from various factions, including the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army, the Islamist Ahrar Al Sham and al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front.

Rebels last withdrew from a Homs stronghold in May 2014, when they pulled out of its Old City in a major symbolic blow to Syria’s fractious opposition.

Rebels and activists said the cease-fire would be a preliminary test of each side’s commitment to a final agreement of withdrawal, for which they are still completing logistics. A U.N. team in Homs is helping mediate the withdrawal and has asked rebels to outline how the fighters will leave and where they will go, according to a person involved in the negotiations.

A U.N. spokeswoman declined to comment.

Brief cease-fires have been struck previously in Waer, but attempts to establish longer truces have fallen through.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition monitoring group, said that under the agreement more than 3,000 rebels would also be allowed to peacefully leave opposition-controlled suburbs of Homs and the central city of Hama.

Source: Syrian Rebels, Assad’s Forces Begin Cease-Fire in Homs – WSJ