Syria militants reach Homs evacuation deal with government

Foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants have reached an agreement with the Syrian government for the imminent evacuation of civilians and extremists from the western Syrian city of Homs.

Provincial Governor Talal Barrazi said the militants would be allowed to leave al-Waer neighborhood in Homs, located 162 kilometers north of the capital, Damascus, under a Russia-backed deal signed on Monday.

Barrazi added that the deal would be carried out within six to eight weeks, with the first group leaving on Friday.

The militants who renounce violence can stay in Homs and benefit from an amnesty law issued by President Bashar al-Assad, he added.

Al-Waer is the last militant-held neighborhood in Homs. It is home to about 75,000 people and has been under a government siege since 2013.

The so-called Homs Media Center has said that between 10,000-15,000 people would leave in groups over the coming weeks. The initial batch would reportedly include about 1,500 people.

Opposition activist, Bebars al-Talawy, said a committee will be formed to prepare the lists of names of those who want to leave.

Opposition-affiliated and Dubai-based Orient News television network reported that militants and their families from al-Waer would go to the area around the border city of Jarablus, which is held by Turkey-backed Takfiri terrorist groups.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also stated there are more than 2,500 militants in the neighborhood.

According to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, the evacuation is the third phase of a deal struck last year that saw hundreds of militants and their families leave al-Waer for other opposition-controlled areas in Homs Province, the northwestern province of Idlib, and the town of Tal Abyad near the border with Turkey.

‘Second Daesh terrorist group emerging in Syria’

Meanwhile, a US journalist and former captive of al-Nusra Front terrorist group, also known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, told Russia Today television network that militants from various parts of Syria were flocking to the country’s northwestern part, merging with each other and shaping a “second Daesh.”

Peter Theo Curtis, who is better known by the nom de plume, Theo Padnos, criticized Western media outlets for their “inadequate and biased” coverage of the Syrian crisis, saying they are blind to what is actually happening on the ground.

Padnos argued that most things reported about Aleppo were false or not provable, saying the emergence of a “second Daesh” was being totally disregarded.

He warned that the new terrorist grouping was in possession of “tons of weapons,” noting that the Takfiris descend from areas in Aleppo, Homs, Dara’a and Damascus outskirts, where they have sustained heavy losses from the Syrian government troops.

Padnos also pointed out that the “second Daesh” was active in close proximity to Europe’s borders, adding, “It’s right on the Turkish border. To get to this second Daesh from any European country, it’s a couple of days on the bus. Young kids are going every day; that’s what the guys on the ground in Syria are telling me: ‘Oh yes, we have new French people, new English people every day.”

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