On Monday the second batch of displaced departed from the Al-Waer district in Homs, completing the agreement which was signed by the Syrian opposition and the regime of Bashar al-Assad to relocate civilians and fighters from the neighborhood to northern Syria.
About 50 buses carrying 1,850 people headed to the city of Jarablus in the northern Aleppo countryside, with the vehicles comprising a total of 370 families, including 40 people suffering from illness, 20 of them chronic and nine critical, according to information obtained by Alsouria Net from inside Al-Waer.
According to reports, about 300 opposition fighters departed in a batch on Monday. Alsouria Net’s correspondent in Homs, Yaarib Dali, said that the batch was late in departing Al-Waer because of the passengers' fears about pro-regime militias in coastal Tartous, where their buses were scheduled to pass through.
The correspondent added that reports had reached the residents that the militias in Tartous were planning to attack and harass the passengers, in response to the increasing number of dead from from Tartous who have been killed in battles with opposition forces previously. He added that the convoy left for its destination after obtaining guarantees from Russian officials that the vehicles would not be attacked.
In a related context, the correspondent said that the evacuation of the civilians and fighters occurred in the absence of any guarantee from the United Nations, which appeared to have withdrawn from the issue.
Dali described the condition of the displaced of Al-Waer who reached Jarablus as tragic, and said that some of them were now living in tents.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
