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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

More rebels, civilians evacuated from Homs

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DAMASCUS: Nearly 2,000 people were evacuated on Saturday from the last opposition-held area in the central Syrian city of Homs, the third batch of residents and rebels to leave under a Russia-brokered deal. Some 1,860 people, including 836 rebels, were evacuated by noon (0900GMT). A security source said that 50 buses carrying the civilians and rebels left the Al Waer neighbourhood towards the north-western province of Idlib. Syrian and Russian military forces and members of the Syrian Red Crescent accompanied the buses. The previous two groups evacuated last month went to Jarabulus, a town near the Turkish-Syrian border, which is controlled by militants and other Syrian forces.


However, Russian and Syrian officials agreed to change the route due to the ongoing clashes in the northern parts of Hama.


Under the agreement, all fighters and their families will leave Al Waer, the only neighbourhood still under rebel control in Homs after government troops took over the city in 2014.


The district has been besieged by government forces for about five months. An estimated 50,000 people are believed to be living in Al Waer, down from about 300,000 before the start of the conflict in 2011.


At least 2,826 people were killed in Syria in March, a Britain-based war monitoring group reported on Saturday.


The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights detailed that the number of last month’s casualties is similar to February, in which 2,854 people lost their lives, Efe news reported.


The NGO pointed out that at least 858 civilians were among the casualties, including 141 minors and 131 women.


A total of 288 civilians were killed in the bombings by Syria and Russia, while 76 were killed in the shelling by the Syrian regime forces and seven were tortured to death in prisons.


Shells launched by rebel and militant factions left another 31 civilians dead, while the shells fired by the IS claimed the lives of seven others.


IS also executed 15 civilians, while other factions killed five others.


In addition, 14 civilians were killed by Turkish bombings and gunfire by a Turkish border guard, while the US-led international coalition bombings killed another 281 and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an armed alliance led by Kurdish militias, killed four civilians.


Another 57 civilians died in car bomb attacks. The casualties also included 43 citizens from Iraq, who died in IS-claimed explosions in the centre of Damascus.


The SOHR added that 762 members of radical groups, including IS and former Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, lost their lives. Syria has been the scene of a six-year conflict that has left more than 260,000 dead, according to the SOHR.


Meanwhile, the White House on Friday backed top aides’ comments that the United States is not now focused on making Syrian President Bashar al Assad leave power, saying the US focus is on defeating IS militants.


Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday drew criticism for playing down a long-standing US goal of persuading Assad to leave power to help end the six-year-long Syrian civil war.


Tillerson said Assad’s future is up to the Syrian people to decide, while Haley said “our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”


At his daily news briefing, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that regarding Assad, “there is a political reality that we have to accept in terms of where we are right now.”


Spicer blamed the inability of Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, to persuade Assad to step down.


The Obama administration, in its later years, was focused on reaching a deal with Russia that would eventually see Assad go, though it also shifted its focus to the fight against IS militants, who captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014.


“We had an opportunity and we need to focus now on defeating ISIS,” Spicer said. “The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq and we’ve made it clear that counter terrorism, particularly the defeat of ISIS, is foremost among those priorities.”— Agencies


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