AFP

Damascus

The Syrian government and rebels have reached a deal under which opposition fighters besieged in the central city of Homs will withdraw during a ceasefire, an NGO said yesterday.

The accord will mean all but one district of the city, once dubbed the “capital of the revolution”, will be back under government control.

In Hama province, further north, 20 people, including 12 children were killed in two bombings targeting towns that are majority Alawite, the offshoot of Shia Islam to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

And Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called in a new audio recording for the group’s Syrian wing to end fighting with the rival jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In Homs, a ceasefire was in place in the Old City and several neighbouring rebel-held districts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“A truce began on Friday... with the goal of applying a deal reached between the sides,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.

“The deal stipulates a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the rebels in the Old City,” which has been under siege for two years.

“As a result of the deal, the army will retake control of these areas,” it added.

The deal was confirmed by an activist on the ground in Homs, who said the withdrawal had yet to begin.

The agreement comes after government forces began an assault against the few remaining rebel-held areas in the city last month.

Regime troops have laid siege to the Old City and a few surrounding areas for almost two years, with nearly 3,000 people trapped under blockade as food and medical supplies dwindled.

In February, a UN-Red Crescent operation evacuated around half of those trapped, and several hundred more have left since, leaving around 1,000 fighters still in the rebel-held areas.

If the accord holds and the fighters withdraw, only the neighbourhood of Al Waer, where many of those fleeing besieged areas of Homs took refuge, will remain under rebel control.

In Hama province, meanwhile, state media said 20 people including 12 children were killed in the Alawite towns of Jidrin and Al Humairi.

The attacks, in which suicide bombers blew themselves up in vehicles, came after a double car bombing killed 100 people in an Alawite district of Homs on Tuesday.

Despite the violence, the government plans to hold a presidential election next month that is expected to sweep Assad to victory.

It will be the country’s first multi-candidate presidential vote, after a constitutional amendment did away with presidential referendums.

Along with Assad, 23 hopefuls have submitted applications to stand, and they will hear on May 6 which of them have met the electoral criteria.

Large swathes of the country are beyond government control and the violence has forced nearly half of the population to flee their homes.

Since early January, mainstream and Islamist rebels, along with Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front, have also been battling against ISIL, which has been accused of abusing both civilians and rebels.

ISIL has its roots in Al Qaeda’s Iraq arm, but it has since fallen out with the organisation, whose chief has repeatedly called on it to leave Syria and focus on Iraq.

In a recording posted online yesterday, Zawahri for the first time ordered Al Nusra’s chief Mohamed al-Jolani to end fighting with ISIL.

Zawahri ordered that “all soldiers of the Front immediately cease fighting” other jihadist groups.