Opposition prepares to decamp from district of W. Syria

By Adham Kako and Levant Tok

HOMS, Syria

Opposition forces are gearing up to depart from the Al-Waer district of Syria’s western Homs province amid repeated cease-fire violations by the Assad regime and its allies.

According to Anadolu Agency correspondents in Homs, the plan comes as the outcome of talks held earlier between opposition and regime representatives through Russian mediators.

Opposition fighters -- and their families -- who want to vacate the area will begin to depart within one week, according to a deal hammered out between the two antagonists.

Under the agreement’s terms, a total of 1,500 people are expected to leave the district each week.

Most evacuees will head for rural areas of northern Homs that remain held by Syrian opposition forces, the city of Idlib near the Turkish border, or the town of Jarabulus, which was liberated from the Daesh terrorist group last summer by Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield.

According to the agreement, the evacuation will be accompanied by the lifting of an ongoing regime blockade of Al-Waer, while the district’s regime-affiliated institutions will be allowed to operate again.

With the lifting of the regime blockade, humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter the district following months of closure.

Opposition fighters who prefer to remain in the district, meanwhile, will be asked to register themselves at a facility set up by the regime, which has vowed not to detain anyone arbitrarily during the subsequent three-month "reconciliation" period.

After six months, it will again become compulsory for local youth who have not performed military service to temporarily serve in the Syrian army.

For the last three years, roughly 60,000 civilians in Al-Waer have reeled under a crippling regime siege. What’s more, the Assad regime has continued to stage frequent attacks in the district, despite a ceasefire agreement that went into effect late last year.

According to Al-Waer’s local council, more than 50 civilians in the district were killed by regime attacks -- and another 320 injured -- over the last month alone.

Due to the regime-imposed siege, Al-Waer’s civilian population has struggled in recent months with acute shortages of both electricity and water.

In January, opposition fighters were forced to withdraw from the Barada Valley in Damascus -- and from central Aleppo -- due to unabated attacks by the regime and its allies.

*Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this report from Ankara