Syrian city now clear of foes, regime asserts

Evacuation ends six-year fight in Homs

BEIRUT — Syria’s government announced Sunday that the western city of Homs, once considered the capital of the revolt against President Bashar Assad, had been cleared of armed opposition for the first time in six years. The announcement came after the warring sides completed the evacuation of the rebel-held al-Waer neighborhood.

Besieged for four years, al-Waer was the last opposition-controlled district in Homs. The evacuation of opposition activists, armed fighters and their families began several weeks ago, part of a deal that effectively surrendered the district after Syrian forces tightened the siege.

Similar deals have been reached in recent months, bringing a number of neighborhoods near the capital, Damascus, as well as the country’s former commercial center and largest city, Aleppo, back to government control.

It is a major shift from a few years ago when the armed opposition was on the rise, threatening the capital and holding on to more than half of Aleppo.

Syrian TV broadcast from inside the al-Waer district, showing children and men gathering around government-sponsored trucks distributing bread and other goods.

Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, has been at least partially controlled by the rebels since the early days of the revolt that broke out in 2011. But government forces recaptured one Homs neighborhood after another, finally isolating the rebels in al-Waer.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said more than 20,000 people were evacuated over the past several weeks from al-Waer to rebel-held areas in the country’s north.

“It is a great achievement today,” Homs Gov. Talal Barrazi told the Syrian TV channel al-Ikhbariya from al-Waer. He said state institutions will begin their return to al-Waer immediately.

Rebels still control areas north of Homs city while the government is on the offensive against Islamic State militants to the south.

Syria’s opposition and armed rebels are now concentrated in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib, and in rural Aleppo near the border with Turkey. Islamic State militants still hold territory in eastern and northeastern Syria and south of Homs city.

In Idlib province, a suicide attack killed at least 14 members of a powerful ultraconservative insurgent group Sunday, Syria opposition activists said.

It was not clear who was behind the attack. Ahrar al-Sham, the targeted group, blamed the Islamic State, saying the attacker arrived in the village of Tal Touqan, to the east of the provincial capital, Idlib city, where Ahrar al-Sham has a center. Ahrar al-Sham said the attacker blew up himself and his motorcycle amid the fighters, killing and wounding dozens.

The opposition-operated Baladi News Network quoted a witness as saying at least 15 people were killed in the attack. The Observatory said 14 were killed, including a local leader, in the attack. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

Northern Idlib is an opposition stronghold, but an al-Qaida-linked group has the most sway there. The group has also been at odds with Ahrar al-Sham.

Clashes between the two groups earlier this year were triggered by a new push for rebels to take part in Russia-backed talks to bring about a cease-fire. The talks also called for rebel groups to battle against the al-Qaidalinked group, which labeled the negotiations as treason. But the two groups are essentially fighting for control over Idlib, the one province in Syria that is totally under opposition control and has a border with the outside world, through Turkey.

The battles that raged in February were considered the worst infighting in years. But the violence has largely subsided as each group keeps control of separate parts of the province.