Government Forces Set to Take Homs, Cradle of Syrian Uprising

Homs, Syria: Syrian forces say that they will take full control today over Homs, a city once vibrant with pro-democracy crowds but now associated with images of ruin that epitomise the brutality of Syria's civil war.

After holding the Old City of Homs for nearly two years, close to 1,200 rebel fighters boarded buses which took them out of the "capital of the revolution" in convoys on Wednesday and Thursday, activists said.

They were driven to rebel-held territory outside the city under a deal agreed between the insurgents and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Homs provincial governor Talal Barazi told Reuters that 80 percent of the fighters had left and the rest would be evacuated on Thursday after which the centre of Homs would be "declared a secure city" and reconstruction would commence.

"We hope to finish the operation today," he said.

Rebels smiled to cameras as they left, but the fall of Syria's third largest city to government forces is a major blow to the opposition and a boost for Assad weeks before his likely re-election.

When thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Homs in 2011, it electrified the nation and anti-Assad demonstrations erupted in every major city. Government forces cracked down on the religiously-mixed city with batons and live ammunition.

Mortar bombs were fired on protests in Homs and the revolution became armed. Rebel groups spread through the city as civilians fled or cowered in the basements of battered buildings. A year ago, government forces laid siege to the Old City and residents said they starved.

Today, the city was close to silent with no sound of gunfire or explosions. Many buildings at the entrance to the Old City district lay in ruins, destroyed by three years of fighting.

ASSAD GAINS

The evacuation comes after months of gains by the army, backed by its Lebanese militant ally Hezbollah, along a strategic corridor of territory linking the capital Damascus with Homs and Assad's Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean.

Assad's forces now control most of the capital, along with the main highway from Damascus through to Homs and the western Mediterranean coast. Rebels control much of the desert in the north and east while Syria's second city, Aleppo, is contested.

At the same time as rebels were evacuated from Homs, dozens of captives held by rebels in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Latakia were freed as part of the same deal.

Governor Barazi told the state media that 70 people abducted by rebels were released, including five children and 17 women, and state television said more people were later released from Latakia today.

Assad is widely expected to be the runaway victor in the June 3 presidential vote, which his opponents have dismissed as a charade. They say no credible election can be held in a country fractured by civil war, with swathes of territory outside government control, 6 million people displaced and another 2.5 million refugees abroad.

More than 150,000 people have died in the conflict. Millions more have fled their homes and fighting regularly kills more than 200 people a day.