Evacuation of Syria’s Homs Rebel Districts to Begin Wednesday
AFP reports that evacuations will begin today for 2,000 rebel fighters and civilians living in besieged opposition-held areas of Homs city, as part of a deal struck between local opposition fighters and the Syrian government.
“Activists on the ground said two buses arrived in Homs early morning to begin the first of the evacuations. Injured people who have been trapped in the Old City and surrounding areas for nearly two years under a tight government siege are to be the first to leave,” according to AFP.
“Under the deal negotiated with assistance of Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, the group will be taken to an opposition-held area in the north of Homs province, according to a rebel negotiator. Fighters will be allowed to withdraw with light weapons, and one rocket launcher will be permitted on every bus used for the evacuation. Under the agreement, opposition fighters will also allow aid into two towns in the same province, Nubol and Zahraa, which are under rebel siege.”
Bomb Kills Local al-Qaida Leader
The AP reports that a local al-Qaida leader in the southern province of Deraa has been killed by a roadside bomb, an attack “that may ignite a new round of infighting between rebel groups in the war-torn country.”
Ali al-Nuaimi of Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, was attacked along with his wife while traveling overnight near the town of Busra al-Sham. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called it an “assassination.” It wasn’t clear who had carried it out.
“The attack came after Nusra fighters seized a controversial Western-backed Syrian military commander, Ahmad al-Nuaimi last Friday. It is unclear if the two men are related – the al-Nuaimi is a large tribe in the area. Also, it wasn’t immediately clear if the two incidents were connected. The bombing and the abduction risk igniting rebel infighting in the south between more moderate Syrian opposition fighters and the hard-line Nusra Front.”
Syria Struggling to Fill Food Import Needs
Reuters reports that Syria is “struggling to buy food commodities in the quantities it needs, despite repeatedly issuing tenders for hundreds of thousands of tons of sugar, rice and wheat.”
Sources with knowledge of Syria’s commercial food deals tell the wire that the war has made large suppliers “increasingly unwilling or unable to provide cargos for the Syrian market.”
One source says that “smaller, fly-by-night outfits and new companies connected with the Syrian government are more active. This is not enough in terms of what the country needs to buy, and they cannot do the high-volume business to meet the demand.”
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