The fifth batch of Waer neighborhood’s evacuees left the last rebel stronghold in Homs city on Monday, heading FSA-held town of Jarablus at the border with Turkey, local reporter said.
The 50 buses carried 1876 people, including 544 women and 680 children, resuming an evacuation expected to be among the largest of its kind under a Russian-backed deal with the regime.
The evacuation is scheduled to deport about 2,5000 rebels and their families. 5300 people left the central city of Homs to the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo in the last three weeks and 1600 left to Jarablus last week, according to Zaman al-Wasl report.
Between 10,000-15,000 rebels and civilians were expected to leave in weekly batches, activists said.
Over the past year, the regime has accelerated its drive to push rebel-held pockets to surrender under evacuation deals similar to the one in force in Homs.
The evacuation of al-Waer residents coincided with the 71th anniversary of the Syrian Evacuation Day, Syria's national day commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier from Syria and the end of the French mandate of Syria on 17 April 1946
