Aid convoy enters last rebel stronghold in Syria's Homs city

Aid convoys on Saturday started entering the besieged district of al-Waer, the last rebel-held district inside Syria's central city of Homs, a well-informed source told Xinhua.

Aid convoys of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent started entering al-Waer as part of a deal between the Syrian government and the rebels over the last rebel stronghold in Homs, though several other areas in the countryside of Homs are still under the rebels' control.

The convoys were the first humanitarian relief to enter al-Waer which has long been besieged by government forces, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Last Tuesday, negotiations between the rebels and the Syrian authorities were concluded with an agreement to evacuate the rebels from their last stronghold in Homs, a source told Xinhua.

Governor of Homs Talal Barazi has concluded the final deal for the rebels' evacuation as of next week, the official source told Xinhua.

The deal also allows the rebels who want to remain in Homs to surrender to the authorities and clear their records, the source added.

The authorities will start settling the records of the armed men who want to return to their normal lives "in rebuilding their homeland and protecting Syria," the source added.

The talks between rebel commanders and officials of Homs province aim to end the armed manifestation there by securing the evacuation of 3,000 rebels from the neighborhood into rebel-held areas in the northern province of Idlib.

"The evacuation of the rebels will be on batches, the first is for radicals who refuse the truce with the government. Those, whose number reaches 700, will be taken to Idlib or northern Hama, while the rest, who are less extreme, are going to be evacuated later," the source said.

The deal would also see the release of detainees from government jails and the entry of food and aid convoys to the besieged neighborhood, the source said, adding that the neighborhood will also see a rehabilitation of government institutions and infrastructure.

The source said negotiations and implementation of the agreement are supervised by the United Nations.

The underway efforts are the latest to reach a settlement there after several previous unsuccessful attempts.

The recent deals came less than a month after world powers agreed on the need to establish a cease-fire in Syria during talks in Vienna, Austria.

The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is working on establishing working groups from the opposition and the Syrian government to discuss political ways to help end the crisis. Endit