Syrian Forces Poised to Recapture Homs After Ceasefire Agreement With Rebels

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: The Guardian

Syria's government and rebels have agreed to a ceasefire in Homs to allow hundreds of fighters holed up in the old quarters of the city to leave – a deal that will bring the country's third-largest city under the control of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. If the agreement holds, the capture of the city will be a significant victory for Assad weeks before presidential elections set for 3 June.

Homs, in the central western plains of Syria, was one of the first cities to rise up against Assad's rule three years ago, earning it the nickname of the "capital of the revolution". After waves of protests, it was the first city to be largely taken over by armed rebels as the uprising evolved into outright civil war.

Assad's forces have been engaged in gruelling urban warfare trying to wrest Homs back. For the past months, rebels were isolated and blockaded in neighbourhoods centred on the historic old quarters, battered by heavy government air strikes and artillery.

<snip>

Beibars Tilawi, a Homs-based opposition activist, said of the ceasefire: "This isn't what we wanted. But it's all we could get."

The deal is a face-saving measure for the rebels. It calls for a 48-hour truce in rebel-held parts of Homs, after which hundreds of fighters holed up in the area will be evacuated to opposition-held areas north of the city, according to Tilawi and another activist who uses the name Thaer Khalildiya and is based in the countryside north of the city.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/syria-homs-truce-rebels

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This is a huge strategic victory for the Assad regime. It puts them in firm control of the central arc from Damascus through Homs and on to the Alawite strongholds to the north of Lebanon.

To the degree the revolution was about defeating Assad, it's over. Now, all the armed opposition can do (and that includes the people arming them, like the US government) is bleed Syria further for no good reason.

[laurent]

1. Good.

This represents a big setback for those Salafi crazies that the US has been supporting.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. "Syrian Activists Say Evacuation of Homs Delayed."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cease-fire-evacuation-deal-syrias-homs-23569296

The planned evacuation of fighters from rebel-held parts of the Syrian city of Homs was delayed Saturday, activists said, though a cease-fire still was holding in the country's third-largest city.

Rebels in the city agreed Friday to surrender the territory in exchange for safe passage to other opposition-held areas. The agreement came after a blockade by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces caused widespread hunger in rebel-held parts of the city, which have been hit relentlessly by government artillery and airstrikes.

Local activist Samer al-Homsi and other three activists said it wasn't clear why Syrian forces weren't allowing the first phase of several hundred rebel fighters to leave.

One Homs-based activist said rebels were gathering wounded fighters, so they could be taken out as a first priority, beginning Sunday. Other Homs-based activists said they believed the delays were over a plan to allow food and aid into two blockaded areas — one blockaded by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, and another blockaded by pro-government forces near Homs.

Activists also said a prisoner exchange deal between rebels and Assad's forces in central and northern Syria also could be delaying the move.

Homs was once known as the capital of the Syrian revolution for its fierce opposition to Assad's rule.

[Bosonic]

3. Good

Leave them be to mop up ISIS et al; do the world a favor.